Thread: Rep. Olson Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Eric Holder

by Matthew Boyle 13 Nov 2013, 2:06 PM PDT
breitbart.com



Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX) has introduced an Articles of Impeachment resolution against Attorney General Eric Holder for his role in Operation Fast and Furious and other scandals of President Barack Obama’s administration.

Seven congressman have signed onto the resolution thus far in addition to Olson. They are Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Phil Roe (R-TN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Roger Williams (R-TX), and Ted Yoho (R-FL).

The Articles of Impeachment has four different sections. The first calls for Holder’s official removal because of his failure to comply with congressional subpoenas relating to Operation Fast and Furious. Holder has been voted on a bipartisan basis into both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for his failure to comply with the Fast and Furious subpoenas from House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA).

The second section of the Articles of Impeachment deals with Holder’s refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the Controlled Substances Act, and the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. The third section calls for Holder’s impeachment on the grounds that he has refused to prosecute any IRS officials involved in the “scandal of unauthorized disclosure of tax records belonging to political donors.”

The fourth section of the Articles of Impeachment goes after Holder for his involvement in the targeting of reporters. Holder testified under oath on May 15, 2013, the resolution states, that he “he was neither involved in nor had heard of a potential prosecution of the press.” Three days later, though, Holder’s Department of Justice (DOJ) “released documents naming journalist James Rosen as a co-conspirator in an alleged violation of the Espionage Act.” Holder later confirmed to Congress that he had in fact “approved a search warrant on James Rosen.”

In a one-pager memo provided to Breitbart News by Olson’s office, the members detail the case for the impeachment of Holder. “For nearly five years, we have witnessed Mr. Holder repeatedly deceive Congress and degrade the credibility of the Justice Department in the eyes of the American people,” the members wrote. “Last year, the House of Representatives took the unprecedented step of holding Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress, making him the first sitting cabinet official ever to hold this distinction."

"Unfortunately, Mr. Holder has continued to act in a manner unbefitting of a cabinet official; he has failed to perform his constitutional duties and violated the law on a number of occasions," the statement continues. "The House of Representatives should not stand by as he continues to undermine the office of Attorney General.”

The members backing Holder’s impeachment have laid out a detailed plan for each section on why each allegation against Holder is an impeachable offense, complete with the legal authority they claim to have in doing so.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...st-Eric-Holder

GOP Rep. Confirms Articles of Impeachment Will Be Filed Against Eric Holder – Here Are the Lawmakers Who Are Supporting the Effort

Nov. 13, 2013 7:17pm
Jason Howerton

A group of fed-up House Republicans, who say they are tired of being stonewalled by Attorney General Eric Holder, plan to formally introduce articles of impeachment on Thursday in a bid to remove the nation’s top law enforcement officer from office.

Several GOP congressmen have been drafting articles of impeachment over a number of controversies relating to the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawmakers’ grievances include Holder’s refusal to turn over documents relating to Operation Fast and Furious, the DOJ’s habit of selectively enforcing federal laws, and the department’s refusal to prosecute IRS officials who allegedly accessed confidential taxpayer information, among other things.

The articles of impeachment also accuse Holder of providing false testimony to Congress, which is a “clear violation” of the law.



Attorney General Eric Holder speaks during the Annual International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference, Monday, Oct. 21, 2013, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia. AP

Rep. Pete Olson (R-Texas) told CQ Roll Call that he plans to formally introduce the charges on Thursday. Further, Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) confirmed the impeachment effort to TheBlaze TV in an interview on “Wilkow!” Wednesday night.

In a statement provided to CQ Roll Call, Olson said Holder has displayed a “pattern of disregard for the rule of law” even after Congress voted to hold him in contempt in 2012. The Florida Republican also released a five-page white paper outlining the four articles of impeachment that will be filed against Holder:

Article I of the impeachment proceedings claims that Holder “engaged in a pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him” by refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee for documents related to “a legitimate congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms that put thousands of illegally-purchased weapons into the hands of cartel leaders, ultimately resulting in the death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry on December 14, 2010.”

[…]
Article II of the proceedings charges that Holder violated his oath of office by refusing to enforce certain laws that the Obama administration, for various reasons, decided not to enforce, including the Defense of Marriage Act, which the administration deemed unconstitutional.

[…]
Article III also charges that Holder violated his oath of office, this time by “refusing to prosecute individuals involved in the Internal Revenue Service scandal of unauthorized disclosure of tax records belonging to political donors.”

[…]
Finally, Article IV claims Holder “provided false testimony to the House Judiciary Committee” regarding the potential prosecution of a member of the news media, Fox News correspondent James Rosen, using the Espionage Act.

Olson has reportedly gained the support of at least 10 other Republicans in co-sponsoring the articles of impeachment. They include: Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tenn.); Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Tenn.); Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.); Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-Ind.); Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Texas); Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas); Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas); Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas); Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.).

TheBlaze TV has more:

Video at the Page Link:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2013...ng-the-effort/

This NUT CASE needs to be Impeached, and extradited to Mexico to face his accusers in a Mexican Court followed by Prison in a Mexican Jail. All assets seized going to pay for the Murders caused by his WRECKLESS INSANE BEHAVIOR

EXCLUSIVE–REP. OLSON: IF HOLDER REFUSES TO LEAVE, WE'LL 'FORCE HIM TO RESIGN'
by MATTHEW BOYLE
13 Nov 2013

Rep. Pete Olson (R-TX), the congressman launching the effort to remove Attorney General Eric Holder from his post atop the Department of Justice (DOJ) via Articles of Impeachment, told Breitbart News exclusively in a Wednesday phone interview that he now has the support of ten other House members already.

As Breitbart News reported earlier on Wednesday, Olson’s resolution, which will be formally introduced in the House on Thursday, has already garnered the supports of Reps. Larry Bucshon (R-IN), Blake Farenthold (R-TX), Phil Roe (R-TN), Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA), Roger Williams (R-TX), Ted Yoho (R-FL) and Randy Weber (R-TX). Now, he can add Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and Bill Flores (R-TX) to the list.

“We can’t have the highest law enforcement official in America defying subpoenas and deciding which laws to enforce and not enforce,” Olson said in his phone interview with Breitbart News. “And so the American people deserve answers and accountability. If he won’t resign, we will force him to resign through impeachment. Plain and simple.”

Olson must get 218 Representatives to support his resolution to pass it out of the House. Last Congress, 130 House Republicans outright called for Holder’s resignation, whereas many more signed the House resolution of “no confidence” in the attorney general that Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) led.

In addition, the criminal contempt of Congress resolution against Holder passed the House of Representatives last year 255-67, with all but two House Republicans—Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) and former Rep. Steven LaTourette (R-OH)—supporting the resolution. Seventeen House Democrats voted Holder into criminal contempt. On the separate civil contempt of Congress resolution, all House Republicans voted yes and 21 Democrats voted yes, as well.

At least eight GOP U.S. Senators called for Holder’s resignation last year as well, as did every GOP presidential candidate in 2012.
The way the process works, Olson said, is that “basically the House has the indictment.” Olson needs to round up the votes necessary to pass this resolution out of the House of Representatives. Then, if this resolution passes the House, it is sent over to the Senate. The House resolution is viewed like an indictment, Olson said, and in the Senate, there would be what is equivalent to a trial. “It’s a two-step process,” he said.

Thus far, Olson said he has had lots of interest from other members in the couple of hours since his effort became public.

“We’ve picked up 10 [cosponsors] here in about two hours,” Olson said. “So 10 is pretty good in just a couple hours. So, Paul Gosar and I are working very closely. We think we’re kind of the two-fisted punch. He’s got his way to go after Mr. Holder and I’ve got my way. And we’re working very closely. Mr. Holder is the most partisan Attorney General our country has ever had.”

Efforts against Holder back in last Congress were focused mostly on Operation Fast and Furious—which is still a major focus of the renewed push against Holder. “The Constitutional standard [for impeachment] is high crimes and misdemeanors,” Olson said in his phone interview with Breitbart News on Wednesday. “I’ve had many conversations with some lawyers up here about that provision and what it really means, and the bottom line is looking at Mr. Holder’s performance—I mean, Fast and Furious. He kept denying there was a gun walking program.”

The DOJ originally denied the allegations from whistleblower and ATF Special Agent John Dodson in a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), a letter that the DOJ left on the official congressional record until almost a year later—when it retracted the letter in late 2011, admitting that the Department had misled Congress for almost a year about Fast and Furious.

Then after admitting Operation Fast and Furious was in fact a gun walking program, Olson said, Holder kept hiding information from Congress and slow walking documents up to the hill. “Our job in the Constitution is oversight—but nothing, nothing, nothing [came in]. Just little trickles,” Olson said. “And giant ordeals with us. Then right as he’s about to testify to these subpoenas, the executive branch all of sudden asserts executive privilege, taking away about one half of the stuff we wanted.

Again, he did not respond to a lawful subpoena. Under U.S. Code 2 USC § 192, that’s a misdemeanor, which can punishable by a $1,000 fine and one year in jail.”

Holder was voted into criminal contempt of Congress on the grounds that he failed to comply with a lawfully-issued congressional subpoena. However, after it passed the House of Representatives on a bipartisan basis, Holder’s subordinate—the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ron Machen—decided to not enforce the criminal contempt resolution.

“That’s why we also passed the civil contempt resolution,” Olson told Breitbart News, noting that the goal was that if Holder blocked his own criminal prosecution—as he was expected to do and did—then House GOP officials could officially designate the resources necessary to launch a lawsuit against Holder’s DOJ and President Obama’s administration as a whole. This lawsuit would fight to have a federal judge overturn the president’s assertion of executive privilege and compel document production to Congress pursuant to Holder’s subpoena. That lawsuit just passed a key hurdle a few weeks ago, in which a federal judge threw out the DOJ’s motion to dismiss—thereby allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

This time around, Holder is not facing charges related just to Operation Fast and Furious. Since the last Congress, Holder’s DOJ has been embroiled in a number of other scandals, and House Republicans are emboldened heading into this battle with Holder.

Olson’s resolution is divided into four separate Articles of Impeachment. The first deals directly with Fast and Furious, the second with Holder’s non-enforcement directives of laws like the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and drug laws. The third addresses Holder’s refusal to prosecute IRS officials involved with leaking confidential tax return documents of GOP donors, and the fourth pursues Holder for allegedly misleading Congress regarding his involvement with the targeting of media figures like Fox News’ James Rosen.

“He actually selects laws and says, ‘I like this law so I’m going to enforce it,’ and ‘I don’t like this one so I’m not going to enforce it,’” Olson said of the second part of his Articles of Impeachment resolution.

He is the most powerful cop, law enforcement official, in America. He can’t pick and choose which laws he wants to enforce and which laws he doesn’t. I mean, DOMA? He did not protect that for years and years. He also got rid of two provisions for drug control, making sure that young people who get convicted serve a minimum sentence. That’s federal law. He’s supposed to enforce it. He also endorsed what’s happened in Colorado and Washington with recreational marijuana. He opened that door by saying, "I won’t enforce the federal law." He took the oath to support and defend the Constitution. He has just not abided by that oath whatsoever.

With regard to Article three, Olson said that even the Inspector General at the Department of Treasury recommended Holder prosecute those at the IRS responsible for leaking GOP donor tax records. “Now he [Holder] declined to take that up and said it’s all fine,” Olson said. “I think that’s the worst one.”

The fourth Article in the resolution—the one that deals with Holder’s alleged involvement in targeting journalists like Fox’s Rosen—Olson said outlines how “Holder came and testified under oath in May of this year and he said he was not involved in the James Rosen situation."

“Holder said in May ‘nope, not involved. Had nothing to do with it,’” Olson said. “Less than a month later, he sends over a letter and admitted that ‘yeah, I actually approved the operation.’ That was a flat out lie to say what he said before Congress with his right hand up and say that he took the oath.”

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...gh-impeachment