politco.com reports that “U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled Tuesday that the Justice Department’s public disclosures about its response to the so-called “gun walking” controversy [a.k.a., Operation Fast & Furious] undercut Obama’s executive privilege claim.” Translation: that train has left the station. Executive privilege this. Hand over the documents, bub. We’re talking about the docs that . . .
U.S. Attorney General Holder withheld from lawmakers, earning him a contempt of Congress citation. Docs that the President then shielded with a claim of executive privilege — despite claiming that he knew nothing about the ATF’s anti-gun running run-running op. Docs that could reveal the Obama administration created F&F to generate support for a federal “assault weapons” ban. That the President knew about it even before Mexican drug thugs used ATF-enabled firearms to murder U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
But don’t get too excited . . .
“This ruling is not predicated on a finding that the withholding was intended to cloak wrongdoing on the part of government officials or that the withholding itself was improper,” the judge wrote.
Perish the thought! It gets worse . . .
Jackson, an Obama appointee, left open the possibility in her ruling Tuesday that some of the disputed records could still be held back from Congress because they contain sensitive information on law enforcement techniques, implicate foreign policy concerns or discuss matters covered by attorney-client privilege.
The administration could appeal the ruling.
In other words, stand down, truth lovers. This is not the smoking gun you’re looking for. Not yet. And all the main players — including former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the soon-to-be-former President Barack Obama — are likely to be off the stage before reality bites. Will the truth out? Watch this space.
[h/t DrVino]