Fast and Furious: Judicial Watch Receives Vaughn Index of Withheld Documents

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com


Hat tip to Squid and a big hat tip to Judicial Watch


After two years of legal struggle, the Justice Department, under a judge's order, has turned over a list of documents withheld from Congress in its investigation of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal to Judicial Watch. This is called a Vaughn index, which lists each document withheld and the reason(s) why they are withheld. There are over 15,000 such documents, which President Obama put under his personal protection by asserting executive privilege. Stunningly, it has been revealed that e-mails between Eric Holder and his wife (who is not a government employee) and even his mother have been protected.

Judicial Watch also suggests that the release of these documents may be tied to Holder's announced resignation.

http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2014/10/obama-asserts-fast-furious-executive-privilege-claim-holders-wife-2/


"Fed up with the interminable delay caused Holder’s gamesmanship and stonewalling, JW renewed its request to the Court to allow our transparency lawsuit to continue.  Thankfully, this past July, Judge John D. Bates ended the 16-month delay and ordered the Obama administration to produce a Vaughn index of the alleged “executive privilege” records by October 1. Judge Bates noted that no court has ever “expressly recognized” President Obama’s unprecedented executive privilege claims in the Fast and Furious matter.

Unhappy with having to produce the records prior to the elections, Justice lawyers asked the judge to give them one extra month, until November 3 (the day before Election Day!) to produce the info.  Judge Bates rejected this gambit, suggested that the Holder’s agency did not take court order seriously.  Rather than a month, Judge Bates gave Justice until yesterday to cough up the Vaughn index. Judge Bates issued his smack down on September 23.

Attorney General Eric Holder announced his resignation two days later."


There can be little doubt that if these documents ever see the light of day,  they would reveal:

1 Fast and Furious was cooked up in DOJ Hqs with the involvement of the White House.

2 Eric Holder and his top lieutenants were intimately involved in overseeing the operation.

3 Holder perjured himself before Congress.

4 The Obama White House and top levels of DOJ including Holder have been involved in a massive cover-up.

Now if we only had a Justice Department to investigate it all.