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Obama Administration: Holder Did Not Lie to House Judiciary Committee
The Truth Behind The News
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Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
June 5, 2013
Last month, regarding Attorney General Eric Holder’s testimony that he was not involved in the surveillance and seizure of personal emails and recorded phone calls of journalist James Rosen and other reporters, the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) called into question Holder’s honesty.
The Obama administration has come to the defense of Holder, acknowledging that he has been at the center of many controversies.
To the HJC, Holder commented: “With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material – that is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite. There should be a shield law with regard to the press’s ability to gather information and to disseminate it.”
Denis McDonough, White House Chief of Staff issued a statement that relayed the stance of Obama and his staff: “[We] believe that the attorney general has the intellect, experience and integrity to efficiently run the Department of Justice and not get distracted by the partisans who seem more interested in launching political attacks than cooperating with him.”
Eric Ueland, former Chief of Staff to the Senate Republican leader said to Holder: “You have a set of issues that have fired up the political opposition, now going along with decisions that have caused deep disquiet among political allies. If one more thing goes awry, the position becomes harder and harder to defend.”
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has offered to assist Holder in getting acquitted should he have indictments served on him.
Giuliani said that as long as Holder’s comments to Congress were “technically truthful” than he can get out of being held responsible because of legal loopholes.
In an interview, Giuliani said: “The answer is almost as damning as if he committed perjury. Basically he said he was playing word games. If I were defending him in the perjury charge, meaning Eric Holder, I could probably get him acquitted, because there’s enough ambiguity in the way he gave the answer.”
Peter Kadzik, principal deputy assistant attorney general, has written a letter in defense of Holder and aimed at disproving the assertion that Holder lied about his involvement in the surveillance of journalists and reporters.
Kadzik stated that there is a clear distinction between investigation and prosecution by asserting that when “seeking a search warrant is part of an investigation of potential criminal activity, which typically comes before any final decision about prosecution.”
The letter claims that it was suspected that Rosen “was a serious breach that compromised national security” and that this was the foundation of the surveillance and seizure operation.
House Representative Bob Goodlatte responded to the letter: “By having a subordinate send this response rather than Attorney General Holder himself, this response begs the question of whether Holder has something to hide. He can’t outsource the responsibility for his actions to lower level staff – the buck stops with him. . . .The House Judiciary Committee anxiously awaits his response to our May 29 letter by this Wednesday’s deadline.”
Goodlatte and House Representative Jim Sensenbrenner acknowledged receipt of the letter from Kadzik and further asserted that it did not address the concerns of the HJC.
Goodlatte said: “We expect the attorney general to respond fully, in writing, to our letter by close of business on Wednesday, June 5, 2013. We look forward to his response.”
When speaking to the HJC, Holder said: “I do not know with regard to this particular case why that was or was not done….I am not familiar with the reasons why the email was disrupted in the way that it was. I have faith in the people who would actually be responsible for this case they were aware of the rules and they followed them. But I don’t have a factual basis to answer the question because I was recused.”
Holder reminded the HJC that he had recused himself from the investigation into the leak, so he had little to tell the House.
Holder said that Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole was left to make decisions about the subpoena probe and should be questioned by the committee. Holder said that his refusal to become involved in the probe was to keep the independent integrity of the investigation.
Adding to the drama, Holder accused House Representative Darrell Issa of being “shameful” with regard to his conduct during the hearing.
Holder announced that there would be a nationwide investigation into the seizure of information from the Associated Press. Holder admitted that “there are potential civil rights law (and) false statement violations.”
The DoJ seized telephone records of journalists who work at the Associated Press. Lists of out-bound calls, including personal cell phone numbers and calls made at work, were seized by the DoJ. Even the direct number to the House of Representatives held by AP was taken.
In a written statement , the DoJ explained: “Those regulations require us to make every reasonable effort to obtain information through alternative means before even considering a subpoena for the phone records of a member of the media. We must notify the media organization in advance unless doing so would pose a substantial threat to the integrity of the investigation. Because we value the freedom of the press, we are always careful and deliberative in seeking to strike the right balance between the public interest in the free flow of information and the public interest in the fair and effective administration of our criminal laws.”
While remaining vague as to why they were interested in this information, the DoJ stated that they were concerned about how the AP was privy to leaked information regarding an al-Qaeda bomb plot in Yemen prior to the story being publicized.
The story published by AP regarded how last spring the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was conducting an operation in Yemen to stop al-Qaeda from successfully obtaining a bomb and detonating it on an airplane in the US. AP apparently knew more about the operation than they should have.
The post Susanne Posel.
Source: http://www.occupycorporatism.com/obama-administration-holder-did-not-lie-to-house-judiciary-committee/
