While Weiner Wept, DOJ Potentially Charged with Obstruction of Justice
by Ann-Marie Murrel
June 8, 2011
I was going to entitle this article “Weinergate Distracts Attention Away from Major Breaking Story” but it’s a little long and not quite as catchy…
Two days ago Facebook icon/blogger ‘Ulster Man’ released an intriguing bit of news on his blog in which he said he received information from a “White House Insider” (MKO Note: James Carville matches discription of this insider) suggesting something major was about to happen in Washington. Ulster Man wrote:
“In a brief but informative update, our longtime D.C. insider tells of Democratic Party operatives joining with their Republican counterparts to ensure Barack Obama is a one-term president… A significant development is to be revealed regarding the DOJ very soon now. That is the information I have been given most recently..”
And Ulsterman’s ‘Insider’ wrote:
“Where we are at in all of this is now a fully integrated operation against Barack Obama’s re-election bid that includes both Democrats and Republicans… The powers now aligning against Obama are significant. They are motivated. And they are very-very serious about defeating Barack Obama.
Watch the news cycle closely over the next 72 hours. You may be in for a treat, and there will be more to come.”
Of course, once Rep. Anthony Weiner’s press conference began on Monday everyone assumed this was going to be the ‘major news’ Ulster Man was talking about.
It wasn’t.
While the entire world watched Weiner weep for the cameras about his probable porn addictions, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) filed subpoenas against the Department of Justice, potentially charging Eric Holder and company with Obstruction of Justice.
The reason, according to the Daily Caller, is because “the Obama administration still hasn’t complied with Issa’s requests for documents or a subpoena he issued on April 1. Before Attorney General Eric Holder appeared at a Judiciary Committee, DOJ supplied several documents that were already public.”
The DOJ also allowed Issa’s investigative team to “view several heavily redacted documents in DOJ headquarters, but wouldn’t allow his team to take them back to the committee for further inspection.”
The documents the DOJ provided were “so redacted you weren’t sure there was writing underneath.”
So on the day of Weinergate, Rep. Issa announced the June 13 hearings to examine whether DOJ is required to respond to a “lawfully issued and valid Congressional subpoena.”
This should have been front-page news but ironically CBS was the only major news source I could find that (barely) mentioned anything about it on Monday:
“The first in a series of Congressional hearings into the so-called ‘gunwalker’ scandal is set for Monday, June 13th.. The title: ‘Obstruction of Justice: Does the Justice Department Have to Respond to a Lawfully Issued and Valid Congressional Subpoena?’”
And as of 4:00 p.m. PST, the only other major media source I can find reporting about this is Andrew Breitbart’s Big Peace. From an article called “Will Public Be Intentionally Distracted From Project Gunrunner Hearings?”, journalist Ben Barrack writes:
“Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform is about to lower the boom with hearings – in phases – on the Project Gunrunner scandal, possibly as early as June 13th.
This scandal blows the one involving Sestak out of the water and is looking more and more like Watergate with murder. Sipsey Street is quoting a source allegedly close to the investigation as saying he will be “surprised” if Attorney General Eric Holder doesn’t end up in “federal prison.”
How in the world is a news story that could potentially place Attorney General Eric Holder in federal prison not breaking news?
By ignoring the subpoena and requests for documents, Eric Holder and the Obama administration may be in for the biggest fight of their entire political careers thus far. (You would think a smart-guy lawyer like Holder would know better than to ignore a subpoena, but apparently not…)
Like the Weiner press conference on Monday, one can only imagine the distractions we will begin witnessing within the next few weeks.
“Here we are on the eve of a scandal that could very likely bring this administration crashing down if the truth comes out,” wrote Barrack. “Whistleblowers and informants are flooding the offices of both Issa and Republican Senator Charles Grassley with mountains of extremely devastating information about a plan to put guns in the hands of Mexican drug cartels. One of those guns was found at the murder scene of Border Agent Brian Terry.”
“It remains to be seen what will grab the headlines during Issa’s hearings into the Gunrunner scandal,” Barrack continues, “but one thing is for certain. The Obama administration absolutely wants this scandal nowhere near the front pages.”
Perhaps one of those distractions will be the launch of the second Gaza flotilla, aptly named ‘Audacity of Hope’ (after Obama’s book). It is scheduled to set sail on June 20—the week of the hearings. Since seven members of congress are also endorsing the Audacity, there’s a pretty good chance that the timing of this event will be nothing short of impeccable. ..
Regarding the Gunwalker/Gunrunner Scandal, Representative Darrell Issa has said, “We know that this Administration at the highest levels approved a process that allowed thousands of high powered weapons, basically AK-47s and M-16 look alikes, to go to the worst of the worst on both sides of the borders.”
“This was an operation approved in Washington,” Issa said. And yesterday, he added, “We have a slew of subpeonas that we expect to be issuing for people here in Washington.”
This is huge news, especially considering Obama and Holder are potentially having ‘loyalty’ problems within the White House.
The latest to jump ship is Austan Goolsbee, the new Chair of Obama’s Council on Economic Advisers. Goolsbee resigned this week, officially saying he wanted to return to his teaching position at the University of Chicago.
However, again from Ulster Man’s “Inside” source, “reports are suggesting that Goolsbee was increasingly at odds with the more numerous and left-leaning economic advisers within the Obama White House .”
Other top Obama team members who have left their posts within the past year are Lawrence Summers, Peter Orszag, Jared Bernstein, Robert Gibbs and Christina Romer. The only original Obama team member remaining is former Federal Reserve member Timothy Geithner.
So this has been a major news day—but you would never know by reading any of the major online news sources. Even now, when scrolling down my Facebook wall of over 5,000 friends, the main story I continue to see over and over is –you guessed it–Weinergate.
All I can say is stay tuned, stay focused and stay on your toes, folks. Keep in mind that for every whining Weiner story, something much more important may be hovering in the background.
Posted by John MacHaffie