Contempt Vote on Holder Expected to Move Forward

(Newsroom America) -- The full House on Thursday is expected to vote on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to turn over documents to a committee investigating Operation Fast and Furious. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said Wednesday that some Democrats may line up to vote with Republicans in favor of contempt.

The operation was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and involving allowing guns to "walk" across the U.S. border into Mexico. The plan was to track the guns to Mexican-based drug cartels, but the agency lost track of most of them.

Some of the guns involved in the operation later turned up at the murder site of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

Initially Holder and the Justice Department said there was no such gun-walking operation but later withdrew that claim.

The House Government Reform and Oversight Committee is seeking documents Holder has refused to turn over after months of negotiations. The path to contempt was solidified after President Obama claimed executive privilege over the documents last week.

"We'd really rather not be there. We'd really rather have the attorney general and the president work with us to get to the bottom of a very serious issue," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said Wednesday.

The speaker said Republicans had given the administration "ample opportunity" to comply with the panel's document request.

"Unfortunately, they're not willing to show the American people the truth about what happened. It's an unfortunate place where we are," he said.

In addition to the contempt vote, the House is considering asking a U.S. federal court to order Holder to hand over documents.

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