Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Fast and Furious Executive Privilege Denial


The Department of Justice's Fast and Furious program under former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder gunrunning policy towards Mexico has been under judicial and Congressional scrutiny for years.  In fact, the House held Holder in contempt for his stonewalling of Congress on the Fast and Furious matter.

Judicially, the Obama Administration tried to quash the judicial action under a claim of Executive Privilege.  




U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson has ruled that the Obama Administration's assertion of Executive Privilege was invalid because the Department of Justice had already released the information to the public in a 2012 Inspector General's Report.

Judge Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, did leave open the possibility that Executive Privilege could be claimed if material was deemed sensitive on law enforcement techniques, matter of state with Mexico or attorney-client privilege.  

The Obama Administration's new Attorney General Loretta Lynch did not immediately indicate her Department of Justice would appeal or if the stonewalling was sufficient to extinguish the fire behind the Fast and Furious gunrunning in the last year of the Barack Obama Administration.

h/t: Politico

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