GOP House committee holds AG Holder in contempt
WASHINGTON – Setting up a potential constitutional confrontation, a Republican-controlled House panel voted Wednesday to cite Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress, just hours after President Barack Obama invoked executive privilege — for the first time — to withhold documents demanded by the committee.
The party-line vote was 23-17 following hours of caustic debate. The controversy goes next to the full House, where Republican Speaker John Boehner said there would be a vote next week unless there was some resolution in the meantime.
Committee Chairman Darrell Issa of California said that "more than eight months after a subpoena" for the documents — which concern how the Justice Department learned there were problems with an Arizona probe of gun-running into Mexico — Obama's "untimely assertion" of executive privilege was no reason to delay the contempt vote.
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