Judge Slaps Holder/DoJ on Fast and Furious, Again

Allah adds something important.

I don't think that Holder is resigning because another shoe is about to drop. I'm a pessimist. These guys are very good at hiding information from the public, and the press is very bad about asking about that. The press' attitude seems to be 1, we already know there's no news here so Leave Eric Holder Alone!, and 2, if there is news here, we don't want to know about it, because Leave Eric Holder Alone!

If I'm remembering right, Nixon could have gotten away with the Saturday Night Massacre (when he fired his special prosecutor, and the AG resigned in protest) had the press not gone apeshit over it.

The press went apeshit, and the public was (rightly) incensed. And curious for more information.

But when a press continues to take no interest whatsoever in Obama's refusal to disclose information which belongs to the American people, the people do not even know there is something to be incensed about.

Any hope that the press will finally start taking an interest in reporting the news is pure folly.

However, Allah's catch (scan down the page) is interesting, though I don't expect a damn thing will come of it.

Judicial Watch sought a list of all documents that the DoJ is withholding, called a "Vaughn Index." Just an index of the documents withheld.

They have repeatedly failed to produce this list -- despite the judge ordering them to.

They have claimed that they just don't have the resources to comply with the law.

They asked for another delay in compliance -- promising this time they'd have the Vaughn list ready on November 3 (one day before the midterms -- no chance to actually do anything more than read the list).

The judge granted a shorter extension (October 22 -- hardly much time there either), but did offer some pungent language about the DoJ.

"The government's arguments for even more time are unconvincing," Bates said in his ruling. "[S]eventy-five days--plus another twenty-one, based in part on Judiciary Watch's consent--is enough time for the government to prepare the index that this Court has ordered, given that this matter has been pending for over two years. The Court will therefore extend the Department's Vaughn index submission deadline to October 22, 2014--and no further."

"The government argues that it must devote significant numbers of attorneys to this matter if it hopes to comply with the current Vaughn index deadline ... But the Department has known about its Vaughn index obligations since July 18, 2014 ... At best, it means the Department has been slow to react to this Court's previous Order. At worst, it means the Department has ignored that Order until now," he added.

Eric Holder has been talking about resigning for a while and I doubt that one more shot from a judge about his failure to disclose information to the public has anything to do with his decision.

But I suppose it's a fitting coda.

posted by Ace at 12:01 PM

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