Gunrunner: Darrell Issa tells Eric Holder he has “reached a new low”

  Last week Eric Holder sent a letter to Darrell Issa in which he still made the claim that he knew nothing about the deadly operation known as Fast and Furious and in this letter he berated Darrell Issa for investigating the operation. Today Darrell Issa responded with a scathing letter of his own to Eric Holder in which he claimed that Eric Holder’s defense has “reached a new low:”

In a letter sent to Holder on Sunday and publically released on Monday, Issa lists several instances in which the DOJ either denied the existence of the gun “walking” tactics used in Fast and Furious — the process of allowing for the sale or delivery of firearms into the hands of suspected criminals — or dragged its feet in turning over documents the committee had subpoenaed.

 “All of these efforts were designed to circle the wagons around DOJ and its political appointees,” wrote Issa.

Holder’s letter “did little but obfuscate, shift blame, berate, and attempt to change the topic away from the Department’s responsibility in the creation, implementation, and authorization” of Fast and Furious, said Issa.

It appears your latest defense has reached a new low,” wrote Issa.

“Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility in serious doubt.”

  Strong words to say the least and that is only part of the letter, the full text can be read here, and I recommend that everyone read it because Darrell Issa picks apart Eric Holder’s defense one point at a time.

  But I wanted to touch on one more part of this letter for it unravels Eric Holder’s claim that he was not informed of the content of the emails regarding Operation Fast and Furious:

In March 2010, Grindler was made aware of the operation’s gun sales to a suspected straw buyer who lived on food stamps, according to Issa’s letter. The buyer paid for more than 700 guns with cash and Grindler did nothing to stop the operation, said Issa.

Issa said that Grindler either told Holder about the operation and its tactics, or he did not. If he did tell Holder, then the attorney general was not being truthful when he told Congress that he was only made recently aware of the operation. If Grindler did not tell Holder, then it would be considered a “dereliction of his duties.”

Issa concludes that Grindler must have told Holder because he was not fired for “dereliction” and was instead given his current job as Holder’s chief of staff.

  Eric Holder has only one of two options; he can either admit that he knew about Operation Fast and Furious when he is subpoenaed or he can continue to plead ignorance of the details of the operation. Darrell Issa has even picked apart that defense because if Eric Holder truly wasn’t informed of the deadly operation wouldn’t he have held someone accountable for not informing him? Yet the man charged with keeping Eric Holder in the loop was not reprimanded, he was promoted. 

  It is becoming more and more apparent that Darrell Issa has Eric Holder right where he wants him and I honestly do not believe that Eric Holder can hang on much longer. If Eric Holder was smart he would resign before he appears before the Congress and digs his grave any deeper, but I don’t think he will do that because he honestly believes he can wiggle his way out of this and ultimately his arrogance will be his undoing.