US News

AG wants to deal after call for contempt vote

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WASHINGTON — Now he wants to compromise.

A day after House Republicans scheduled a vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, the nation’s top law- enforcement officer told lawmakers he wants to work out a deal over releasing documents related to the “Fast and Furious” probe.

A newly conciliatory Holder testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday that he is willing to compromise on some of the records the House Government and Oversight Committee has been demanding.

“I want to make sure it is very clear that I’m offering — I myself — to sit down with the [House] speaker, the chairman, with you and work our way through this in an attempt to avoid a constitutional crisis and come up with ways, creative ways, in which to make these materials available,” Holder told one of his chief critics, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa).

Holder has provided 7,600 documents while the committee has issued subpoenas asking for tens of thousands more over a botched federal program that resulted in guns getting into the hands of Mexican criminals.

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House oversight committee, announced Monday that his panel would hold the contempt vote on June 20. An Issa spokesman said yesterday that the chairman isn’t willing to sit down and negotiate until previous requests for documents are granted.

“Discussion about Fast and Furious have been ongoing for nearly a year and a half,” Issa’s spokesman, Frederick Hill, said.

“The Justice Department, however, did not express interest in reaching a workable solution until after the committee announced it had obtained detailed wiretap applications from a source and scheduled a vote on contempt.”

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ran the Operation Fast and Furious program in 2009 and 2010, releasing 2,000 guns in order to track them to Mexican cartels. Hundreds of the guns were lost, and some showed up at Mexican murder sites.

One was found at the shooting- death scene of Arizona US Border Agent Brian Terry.

Issa recently obtained wiretap approvals that he said were granted at high levels of the Justice Department, showing that top officials knew about the operation. Holder has vehemently denied it.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) yesterday joined a growing number of congressional Republicans calling on Holder to resign.

“I don’t have any intention of resigning,” Holder shot back.

Grassley chided Holder for the delay in turning over documents since the probe began.

“Here we are, one year later, and the Terry family is still waiting for answers, they’re still waiting for justice,” Grassley said.

Holder was asked whether he intended to stay on as attorney general if President Obama wins a second term.

“What my future holds, frankly I’m just not sure,” Holder said.