Editor’s Note – Now its bribery allegations, all while Eric Holder testifies again over the Fast & Furious scandal.
Almost daily now, and it certainly won’t end soon, the Department of Justice is exposed again, and again for failing the American people. Regardless whether Eric Holder thinks this is just political, and the White House and Congressional Democrat Party Caucus post their own reports to muddy the waters, Americans deserve to know the entire story, and heads must role.
“This has become political, that’s fine,” Holder said later at the hearing, but there is no attempt “at a cover-up.” The Justice Department, Holder insisted, “will continue to share huge amounts of information.” (CBS News)
It is easy to point the political finger, and when the tables were turned in other instances, the same tactics were employed on all sides, but in this case, a boondoggle that has political roots at its very foundation resulted in the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December of 2010. That was a full year after the DoJ and its subsidiaries could have made a significant set of arrests which were never carried out that would have certainly meant that Terry would still be with us today.
Border Agent Brian Terry
Agents could have arrested one of the suspects in December 2009 and used his arrest to work their way up the ladder to the two cartel associates, the staff memo said.
“Instead, ATF wanted to get its own federal wiretaps and create its own big case,” said the GOP memo. “This decision ensured that Fast and Furious lasted nearly a year longer, with 1,500 more guns being purchased — including the guns bought by another of the suspects in January 2010” found at the Terry murder scene. (CBS News)
Now, yet another boondoggle is exposed, one that casts an even larger shadow over the oversight of the DoJ by Eric Holder. This much belies his protestations today and request for “some credit” he mentioned while testifying today in front of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
SUA is glad to give you credit Mr. Holder – credit for malfeasance, dereliction of duty, and a whole host of other transgressions and crimes. Not the least of which is the threatened citation for Contempt of Congress as was reiterated this morning by Dan Burton (R) Indiana:
“I think you’re hiding behind something here,” Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., told Holder. “You ought to give us the documents. … It appears we’re being stonewalled.”
Burton, a former chairman of the committee, said he would urge Issa to seek a contempt of Congress citation if the Justice Department does not produce the congressionally subpoenaed documents. (CBS News)
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Bribery, compromised officials leave indicted financial-crime suspects free from prosecution under Holder’s DOJ
By Matthew Boyle
Daily Caller (TheDC)
A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.
The sitting governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable.
The bribed officials, an attorney with knowledge of the investigation told TheDC, remain on the taxpayers’ payroll at the Justice Department without any accountability. The DOJ source said Holder does not want to admit public officials accepted bribes while under his leadership.
That source said that until the summer of 2011, the two compromised prosecutors were part of a team of more than 25 federal prosecutors pursuing a financial crime ring, and at least five other prosecutors tasked to the case were also compromised by the criminal suspects they were investigating, without being bribed.
TheDC is withholding the name of the source, a knowledgeable government official who served on the Justice Department’s arrest team and was involved in the investigation, in order to prevent career retaliation from political figures in the Obama administration.
A former high-level elected official vouches for the government source’s veracity. “[The source] was trustworthy … and you could tell [the source] information or [the source] could hear information and [the source] would keep things close to [the source’s] chest,” that former official told TheDC. “You could trust [the source] with your life.”
The identities of the prosecutors who accepted bribes and others who were compromised have not yet been made public, and TheDC has not yet independently confirmed their identities. The prosecutors themselves are now cooperating with Justice Department investigators.
