Did You Know...

**Written by Doug Powers

From the “as surprising as the sun coming up in the east this morning” file, we have this:

After Congress found the nation’s top law enforcement officer in contempt Thursday, the Department of Justice quickly wrote a letter to House Speaker John Boehner informing him that it will not prosecute U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder for withholding documents in a congressional investigation of the Fast and Furious gun walking operation.

“The longstanding position of the Department of Justice has been and remains that we will not prosecute an Executive Branch official under the contempt of Congress statute for withholding subpoenaed documents pursuant to a presidential assertion of executive privilege,” James M. Cole, the deputy attorney general, wrote in a letter dated June 28 and addressed to the Speaker.

Does anybody think that the DoJ would have prosecuted even without the executive privilege assertion? “I would have had myself arrested, but now the president says I can’t. What are ya gonna do ya know…”

Here’s something the MSM’s sure to remind everybody about when mentioning this, just to add a “Bush did it too” element to the story:

A department official told Fox News the letter was “pro forma” — or a formality — considering that ex-Attorney General Michael Mukasey in 2008 also refused to refer two Bush White House aides to a grand jury after they were held in contempt.

Didn’t millions of people vote for Obama in part because he said he was going to be a dramatic departure from the way the Bush administration did business by turning DC into a beacon of transparency and accountability? It could also be argued that the situations are well beyond apples and oranges, because the Bush officials — Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former WH counsel Harriet Miers — were accused of contempt for refusing to turn over material related to the firings of US Attorneys. The Fast & Furious investigation revolves around a border agent, Brian Terry, (and many others across the border) who lost their lives as the result of a botched government operation.

Issa is now gearing up for a civil case against Holder.

**Written by Doug Powers

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