Holder faces grilling from House committee

[Kowalski]

"IT HAS BEGUN".....

Holder faces grilling from House committee

Attorney General Eric Holder faces tough questioning from a House committee Wednesday afternoon over twin scandals that have dogged the Obama administration this week: the seizure of phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors and the revelation that IRS employees singled out conservative nonprofits for extra scrutiny.

In his prepared statement at the hearing, Holder mentioned neither topic, instead focusing on the Justice Department's commitment to civil rights, immigration reform, and the reversal of sequester cuts.

Holder said at the hearing that he realized there's been "criticism" of the department's decision to subpoena records for the private and work phones of more than 20 AP reporters and editors without at first notifying them, but that he was unable to say why the investigation's scope was so large, because he recused himself from the matter along with the rest of the national security division. "I am not involved in the case," Holder said.

Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wisc, said he was troubled that Holder did not take responsibility for the decision. "We don't know where the buck stops," he said.

On Tuesday, Holder said at a news conference that the national security leak that prompted the department to seize AP phone records was among the most serious he had ever seen.

“I have to say this is ... among the top two or three most serious leaks I have ever seen. It put the American people at risk. That is not hyperbole,” he said. The leak led to an AP story last year about the government foiling a Yemeni-based terror plot to bomb American airliners.

Meanwhile, Holder told reporters that he has launched an investigation into reports that the IRS singled out conservative groups and subjected them to more review and scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status. The IRS' inspector general report said that a group of low-level staffers in an Ohio office were responsible.

Holder's appearance at the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee hearing was scheduled before the IRS and AP news broke, but will most likely now be focused on those issues. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, the Republican chair of the committee, said in a statement that he plans to ask "pointed questions" about the Justice Department's decision to subpoena two months' of AP telephone records, as well as question Holder about the IRS and whether there were any intelligence failures in the lead-up to the Boston bombings.

Holder has long faced criticism from Republicans, some of whom called for his resignation in 2011 over the failed gun-walking Fast and Furious operation on the U.S.-Mexico border. The Justice Department's inspector general cleared him of wrongdoing in that scandal last year, blaming the botched operation on Arizona federal prosecutors and ATF agents.

----- Taken from http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/holder-grilled-house-committee-meeting-163815035.html

[questionmark]

If this scandal started in the upper echelons they should not be grilled but be send to Guantanamo.

[Sweetpumper]

Can't wait to see this moron huff, puff and roll his eyes throughout this whole thing.

[Kowalski]

Is anyone watching this on CSPAN?

I don't have time to watch it right now.

There should be a link to the hearing on this website:

http://www.theblaze.com/#

And: http://www.c-span.org/

Edited May 15, 2013 by Kowalski

[Mantis914]

Can't wait to see this moron huff, puff and roll his eyes throughout this whole thing.

He won't have to... race will become a factor somehow in this if he holds true to past grillings... Chewbacca theory, anyone?

[Kowalski]

He won't have to... race will become a factor somehow in this if he holds true to past grillings... Chewbacca theory, anyone?

I don't think Holder can rip peoples arms off, though....LOL

[aztek]

it wasn't me.

this guy is either biggest liar, or the most incompetent whatever his title is.

FF he didn't know nothing about, this was done behind his back, lol.

what is he there for??? a question pops in my mind.

he isn't even a fall guy, he is still not in jail.

Edited May 15, 2013 by aztek

[Sweetpumper]

it wasn't me.

He's like the messiah, has nothing to do with anything that's wrong.

[aztek]

of course, it is all bush, both of them lol

[Kowalski]

I've read and heard about this before, so I'll post it, in case others don't:

However, after stepping down from the bench in 1993 his service in the DOJ under Janet Reno raises some very important questions which may shed some light on the service he might render to President Obama.

In August 1992, you will remember that a federal law enforcement agent and expert sniper shot and murdered Vicki Weaver the wife of Randy Weaver, at their home in Idaho. The federal agents also shot their young son Sam in the back and killed him as he was running away from them. The incident began, as a jury concluded, when the ATF entrapped Randy Weaver into committing a gun violation.

After an initial investigation uncovered evidence of a coverup and other potential crimes by the federal agents following the incident at "Ruby Ridge" the matter was referred to the U.S. Attorney in D.C., Eric Holder, for further proceedings. Holder recused himself from the investigation.

Then in 1993 his superior Janet Reno presided over, and was ultimately cleared, in what many Americans still to this day see as a high water mark of the governments power to overrun its own people, the invasion, burning and murder of innocent women and children at the home of Branch Davidians in Waco Texas.

Holder was deputy attorney general under Reno and declared that he was pleased that his department had been cleared of any wrongdoing in the matter, despite what Americans clearly saw on their own TV sets, and said, "David Koresh and certain Branch Davidians were responsible for the tragedy at Waco."

taken from http://bluegrassbulletin.typepad.com/bluegrass_bulletin/2008/11/guns-bullets-sniper-fire-corruption-murder-obamas-attorney-general-eric-holder.html