BREAKING: Court Says Obama Admin MUST Turn Over Fast and Furious Documents
http://www.tpnn.com/2014/07/31/breaking-court-says-obama-admin-must-turn-over-fast-and-furious-documents/
July 31, 2014 By
On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia offered a ruling that will allow Americans greater insight into the Fast and Furious scandal and the Obama Administration that has repeatedly promised to operate as a model of transparent government.Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, the court ruled on Thursday that documents that have previously been withheld from Congress under a flimsy pretense of executive privilege must be turned over to Congress.
“Once again, Judicial Watch has beat Congress to the punch in getting key information about another Obama scandal – this time, the Fast and Furious outrage,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “A federal court has ordered the Obama administration to produce information that could, for the first time, provide specific details who in the administration is responsible for Fast and Furious lies to Congress and the American people. This is a battle that put Eric Holder in contempt of Congress, saw Nixonian assertions of executive privilege by Barack Obama, and a hapless Congress in face of all this lawlessness. Finally, we may get some accountability for Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and the countless others murdered as a result of the insanely reckless Obama administration program.”
For over 16 months, the lawsuit has lingered as Judicial Watch pursued the documents. About a year ago, the court rejected the Justice Department’s request for a hold on the lawsuit that would last indefinitely. The Justice Department had maintained that the documents are protected by executive privilege and that the Fast and Furious scandal was still being investigated.Attorney General Eric Holder was found in contempt of Congress in 2012 after he refused to cooperate fully with investigations into his involvement in the Justice Department operation that allowed untracked firearms to be funneled to Mexican drug cartels while the Obama Administration condemned violence surrounding the border and attempted to blame law-abiding gun owners and gunshop owners for the violence.
The president saved Holder at the last moment by cloaking his 
official in executive privilege. The Fast and Furious scandal has been obscured by this flimsy pretense ever since.
official in executive privilege. The Fast and Furious scandal has been obscured by this flimsy pretense ever since.The DOJ claims, in addition to other Exemption 5 rationales, at least two distinct forms of executive privilege to justify withholding documents: a “deliberative process” privilege of constitutional dimensions and a “congressional response work-product” privilege.
The Justice Department must now turn over what has been called the “Vaughn Index”- which is an index of “all requested Fast and Furious materials from a June 2012 Judicial Watch FOIA request.”
Judicial Watch’s release clarifies:
A Vaughn index must:
- (1) identify each document withheld;
- (2) state the statutory exemption claimed; and
- (3) explain how disclosure would damage the interests protected by the claimed exemption.”
In ordering the DOJ to provide Judicial Watch the Vaughn index, the Court ruled, “In this circuit, when an agency is withholding documents under exemption claims, courts require that the agency provide a Vaughn index so that the FOIA requester – at a distinct informational disadvantage – may test the agency’s claims.”
The court’s ruling is likely not the last hurdle to finding the truth about the scandal that left American border patrol agent Brian Terry dead. However, it is one step closer to forcing the Obama Administration to reveal to the American people the truth about the government’s complicity in the outrage.
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