The United States Justice Department on Friday announced that Attorney General Eric Holder’s decision to withhold information regarding Operation Fast and Furious, a flawed gun-tracking investigation, from Congress does not constitute a crime and he will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. The House of Representatives voted on Thursday afternoon to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress for refusing to release documents. President Barack Obama exercised his executive privilege authority and ordered Holder not to release materials about executive branch deliberations and internal recommendations.
The Justice Department said in a letter to House Speaker John Boehner that it will not bring the congressional contempt citation against the attorney general to a federal grand jury and that it will take no other action to prosecute Holder. “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,” said Deputy Attorney General James Cole.
