Attorney General Eric Holder admitted on Thursday that e-mails from his computer were withheld from a congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, angering lawmakers who threatened the nation’s top cop with impeachment and contempt charges.
“These are materials we have not and will not produce,” Holder testified during the combative day-long hearing before the House Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R.-Calif.) compared Holder to disgraced Attorney General John Mitchell of Watergate infamy, as he threatened to bring contempt charges against him for refusing to divulge the documents.
“Have you no shame?” Holder snapped at Issa, likening the questioning to Sen. Joe McCarthy’s hearings held to expose Communists in the '50s.
Issa criticized Holder for dodging any blame in the operation’s failure, and demanded that everyone implicated in the matter be terminated.
“I have no confidence in a President who has full confidence in an attorney general who has in fact not terminated,” or reprimanded, department officials involved, Issa said.
Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R.-Wis.) suggested impeachment is lawmakers' only remaining option for Holder if he continues to withhold information. Still Holder insisted he knew nothing about Fast and Furious until months after the death of a federal agent.
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