With Attorney General Eric Holder on his way out of office and the newer stories taking center stage in the Obama cavalcade of scandals, many believed the investigation into the botched Operation Fast and Furious was DOA (dead-on-arrival). However on Thursday, a public-interest group renowned for uncovering government corruption and criminal activity released Department of Justice (DOJ) documents that revealed that not only did Holder lie under oath before a congressional panel, but that the cover-up leads right into the Oval Office.
Not only did Holder know about the botched operation, but so did Obama's confidante, who's known to tell her boss everything.
Courtesy of Judicial Watch

The nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog group, Judicial Watch, after winning a court case in which a federal judge ordered the DOJ to release of Fast and Furious information, reports that President Barack Obama's top-minion, Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett, was part of the cover-up when it appeared that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) failed-operation might cause problems for the Justice Department, the attorney general and even President Obama, who was already gearing up for his re-election campaign.

The DOJ's Fast and Furious documents were being kept away from not only conservative watchdogs and the unabashedly biased news media, with President Obama claiming they would remain secret under executive privilege. But these newly released records showed that Jarrett entered the picture just as the scandal was starting to gain steam.

According to the more than 1,000-pages, Holder's initial reaction to the scandal was to get advice from Obama's most-trusted associate, Ms. Jarrett, especially after CBS News' investigative journalist Sharyl Attkisson aired a story in October 2011 that proved Holder knew about the botched gun-smuggling operation -- that resulted in the killing of one, or possibly two, American law enforcement officers -- for far longer than he claimed after being sworn-in during a congressional hearing.

"The moment Holder said the words 'so help me God,' he proceeded to lie not only to the lawmakers and reporters but also to the family members of the deceased Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry who was allegedly killed with one of the Fast and Furious guns that fell into the hands of Mexican gangsters," said former police officer Iris Aquino. "He also lied to the American people, who still voted for his boss."

This latest release of records is part of a DOJ “Vaughn index” about the gun-running operation. Attorney with Judicial Watch found itself having to sue the agency for the records after the Obama administration failed to provide them under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). A federal judge ordered the DOJ to provide the records over the agency’s objections.

As per a 1974 court ruling, a Vaughn Index must: (1) identify each document withheld; (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption, according to an Examiner news story.

Contrary to claims of having no knowledge of Fast and Furious the documents show that “Jarrett was brought in to manage the fact that Holder lied to Congress after the story about the disastrous gun-running operation broke in the media. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ran the once-secret program that allowed guns from the U.S. to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels. Instead, federal law enforcement officers lost track of hundreds of weapons which have been used in an unknown number of crimes, including the murder of a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Arizona," argues Judicial Watch.

Of particular interest to Judicial Watch are the three emails between Holder and Jarrett as well as an email from former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke to Jarrett. The three e-mails with Holder are all dated Oct. 4, 2011, the day after CBS News journalist Attkisson did a news story that showed Holder had been sent a briefing paper on June 5, 2010 by the director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, Michael Walther about Operation Fast and Furious.

That specific information shows that Holder lied during his testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, when he said that he, “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks,” according to the Judicial Watch legal team.

"Given the timing and subject of these emails, it's clear that [Obama confidante] Jarrett quickly became a key player in the Fast and Furious cover-up in the immediate aftermath of the revelation that Holder had lied to Congress," according to the attorneys involved.

http://www.examiner.com/article/ag-holder-lied-fast-and-furious-cover-up-leads-into-the-oval-office?CID=examiner_alerts_article