WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department's claim of executive privilege used to withhold certain documents tied to the Fast and Furious "gun-walking" scandal from release to a congressional committee.
House Republicans sued in federal court in 2012 to obtain thousands of emails related to the botch effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track guns across the Southwest border.
Revelations of the operation created a political firestorm and set off a documents dispute between former Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress that resulted in Holder being held in contempt of Congress.
The Justice Department had already produced tens of thousands of pages of documents, but Congress continued to seek additional records that the department argued it was entitled to withhold.
In her decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman said it was inappropriate for the Justice Department to continue to make a blanket assertion of executive privilege in part because the agency had already disclosed through other channels much of the information it was seeking to withhold.
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rules-against-justice-dept-fast-furious-fight-200935840.html
House Republicans sued in federal court in 2012 to obtain thousands of emails related to the botch effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to track guns across the Southwest border.
Revelations of the operation created a political firestorm and set off a documents dispute between former Attorney General Eric Holder and Congress that resulted in Holder being held in contempt of Congress.
The Justice Department had already produced tens of thousands of pages of documents, but Congress continued to seek additional records that the department argued it was entitled to withhold.
In her decision Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman said it was inappropriate for the Justice Department to continue to make a blanket assertion of executive privilege in part because the agency had already disclosed through other channels much of the information it was seeking to withhold.
http://news.yahoo.com/judge-rules-against-justice-dept-fast-furious-fight-200935840.html
