Dim Won. a/k/a Dumbo, b/k/a Barack Obama is invoking “Executive Privilege” to cover all Fast & Furious documents under subpoena from the House, an operation Dim Won claims to have been unaware until he heard about it in the news, from Fox News, via Weekly Standard [1]:
President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead Wednesday morning with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.
If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure
Reax Doug Mataconis, Outsde the Beltway [2]:
From the White House’s point of view, it’s rather odd that they would assert Executive Privilege over documents that were requested some eight months ago and which, as recently as twelve hours ago, the Justice Department said that it was willing to provide the Committee access, at least under limited circumstances. From a political point of view, it seems to reinforce the idea that they were withholding the documents because they contained damaging information about the ongoing scandal. This is especially true since Executive Privilege has generally only been asserted in cases where the documents involve communications with the President and his staff. Up until now, the Justice Department and the White House have both said that the White House was not involved in the Fast And Furious operation or in the internal investigation that occurred after it started to fall apart. Does the assertion of Executive Privilege now mean that is true?
The more important question, though, is exactly what the President is asserting is covered by the privilege. It’s not generally acceptable to point to a pile of documents and claim that they are privileged without providing a specific basis for why they are so privileged. This typically requires creation of a Privilege Log that details what documents are being withheld and the reason that they are being withheld, something that the Justice Department itself has yet to do despite the fact that the subpeona is eight months old. So far, the White House has not sent any communication to the House or to the Committee asserting the privilege and detailing the documents that it asserting the privilege over. It would seem rather absurd for the privilege to be claimed over all 11,000 documents that have been withheld, so one would think that the White House will document its privilege claim soon so that it can be evaluated, by an independent body if necessary.
The best for which the Obami can hope to run the clock out till after the election. Call it the Richard Nixon strategy.
Dim Won is either lying about his knowledge of Fast & Furious, or else he is extending “Executive Privilege” to cover the entire Executive Branch.