AG Holder, House Republicans clash over documents

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder clashed with Republicans at a House committee hearing Thursday over demands that the Justice Department turn over more documents about a flawed gun-smuggling investigation.

Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will do what is necessary to force the Justice Department to produce information on its handling of congressional inquiries on Operation Fast and Furious.

The attorney general said he will consider Issa's demand. But he said the department, with one exception, was inclined to follow a longstanding tradition of withholding internal documents about how to respond to congressional inquiries in order to preserve the ability to get candid advice from top officials.

"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."

Issa has threatened to seek a contempt of Congress ruling against Holder for failing to provide the material. The lawmaker alleges the Justice Department is engaging in a cover-up.

"This has become political, that's fine," Holder said 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" about Fast and Furious itself.

The department says a Feb. 9 deadline set by Issa is too soon to process "the broad scope of the committee's requests." Some 6,000 documents have been produced.

At his daily briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Holder has cooperated with Congress and "the politicization of this is pretty apparent." He said President Barack Obama thinks Holder is doing an excellent job and won't agree to calls by some GOP members for Holder's ouster.

Though neither side said so, negotiations are almost certain to be the next step.

Before the hearing started, Issa introduced Holder to federal agent John Dodson, a whistleblower in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who told Congress a year ago about the use of a tactic known as gun-walking in the Phoenix-based Fast and Furious investigation.