Wednesday, September 19, 2012

It's being reported that the IG's report clears Holder Updated

of knowing about Gunwalker(so he's so incompetent he doesn't know what's going on?), but
“The report says Attorney General Eric Holder was not made aware of potential flaws in the program until February of last year,” Fox News is reporting, while making no reference to deficiencies admitted up front by the OIG.

Case in point, Chapter One of the report identifies key individuals who declined to be interviewed, significantly including “Criminal Chief [Patrick J.] Cunningham [who] declined through counsel our request for a follow-up interview…We also requested an interview with Kevin O’Reilly, a member of the White House’s National Security Staff[who] declined our request through his personal counsel.”

Simlarly of significance, and hardly surprising to those following this story, the report notes “The White House did not produce to us any internal White House communications, noting that “’the White House is beyond the purview of the Inspector General’s Office, which has jurisdiction over Department of Justice programs and personnel.’”

So they didn't talk to a bunch of people, did NOT get needed files, and yet they say Holder didn't know anything? Bullshit. For that matter, I didn't know people could tell the IG "I don't want to talk to you" and get away with it; are these clowns setting a precedent they may regret? More problems:
Also raising concerns, and again unsurprising to long-time observers, is a statement released this afternoon by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, who observed “We’ve already noticed that the report contains a factual error that lets Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer off the hook. The report accepts Breuer’s version of events, claiming that he hadn’t ‘proposed edits, commented on the drafts or otherwise indicated he had read them.’ In fact, emails show that he received drafts of the February 4 letter and commented on them before it was sent, which he later denied to Congress.”

So the report is really incomplete, has lots of holes in it, but expect the media to keep saying "This clears Holder!"

 Update: Whitewash. All you need to know about the OIG report in one sentence.

2 comments:

Bob said...

You didn't really expect anything else, did you? It's why an independent counsel was refused by the administration.

Anonymous said...

So... the ag is not a criminal... he is just incompetent... and therefore should be fired!