Recommending that Attorney General Eric Holder Be Held in Contempt
Floor Speech
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Mr. BURTON of Indiana. I thank the gentleman for yielding.
There has been a lot of hyperbole and a lot of repetition, but a lot of the things that have been said haven't really been factual. So let's look at the facts:
Brian Terry was murdered. Hundreds of people have been murdered in Mexico with guns that went across the border. The Justice Department said in February of 2011 that they had no knowledge about this, and then 10 months later, they admitted they lied. Now they said they didn't know, and then they said they did. I don't know what you call that, but to me, it's a lie.
Then Chairman Issa tried again and again to get information so we could get to the bottom of this, like the 32 Democrats wanted, and they refused. He sent subpoenas; they refused. They hid behind this being an ongoing investigation and they couldn't give those documents. We got a fraction of the documents that should have been given to us, but they wouldn't do that.
Issa met with the Attorney General's people to try to come to some conclusion, some kind of a resolution of this so we wouldn't have to move the contempt citation; nothing, absolutely nothing.
And then finally, at the 11th hour, when we knew that we were going to have to move with the contempt citation, the President of the United States issues an executive order claiming executive privilege. Something is funny.
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Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Something is wrong. There's just no question. Something is being hidden from the Congress and the American people. And no matter how much is being said here tonight, the fact of the matter is we aren't getting the information.
A Border Patrol agent has been killed, maybe two. Hundreds of people have been killed in Mexico with American guns that our government knew were going across that border. The Attorney General has not been giving us the information. The Justice Department has been hiding it from the Congress and the American people, and the President has claimed executive privilege. If that doesn't tell you something, nothing will.
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