Judicial Watch Sues over Fast & Furious Stonewall: Seeks Docs about DOJ’s Legal Fight over Holder Contempt of Congress Citation

Judicial Watch - (Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that on September 5, 2013, it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, against the Obama Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking access to all records of communications between DOJ and House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform relating to settlement discussions in the Committee’s 2012 contempt of Congress lawsuit against Attorney General Eric Holder. The contempt citation stemmed from Holder’s refusal to turn over documents to Congress related to the Fast and Furious gunrunning scandal (Judicial Watch v. DOJ (No. 1:13-cv-1344)).

Judicial Watch filed the FOIA lawsuit as part of its continuing investigation of the Fast and Furious scandal, where the Obama administration allowed weapons to “walk” across the border into the hands of Mexican drug cartels directly resulting in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and countless Mexican citizens. On August 13, 2012, the House Oversight Committee sued Holder to enforce subpoenas in its probe of the Fast and Furious operation. On March 18, 2013, after a breakdown of settlement talks between the Committee and DOJ, a federal judge ordered the two sides to enter into mediation.

Judicial Watch now seeks access to the following records pursuant to its original FOIA request submitted on March 20, 2013:

Any and all records of communications, correspondence, and contacts between the Department of Justice and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform concerning or relating to a settlement in Committee on Oversight and Government Reform v. Holder, 1:12-cv-01332, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington). Such records include, but are not limited to, records of the settlement discussion themselves. The timeframe for this request is October 1, 2012 to March 20, 2013.  More   PTG