Gosar: Let's Shed Some Light on Eric Holder's Blatant Disregard for the Rule of Law
Yesterday during a speech on the House floor, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar took a moment to remind everyone of Attorney General Eric Holder's lawless record in the Department of Justice. Gosar has been leading a charge of no confidence against Holder for years and re-introduced his Resolution of No Confidence earlier this year. The Resolution calls for Holder's immediate resignation and has 137 co-sponsors in the House. Holder is still in criminal and civil contempt of Congress.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to shed light on Attorney General Eric Holder’s blatant disregard for the rule of law.
Mr. Holder’s violations of the law are egregious and he should not be immune from the prosecution or given license to act without restraint.
An ordinary citizen would go to jail for selling guns to Mexican drug cartels.
An ordinary citizen would go to jail for secretly obtaining phone records and emails.
An ordinary citizen would go to jail for lying to Congress about an investigation.
What would happen to an ordinary citizen for lying to a judge?
This is just a small part of what Attorney General Eric Holder is responsible for.
As the Court Justice Brandeis said, “In a government of laws, the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously…. If government becomes a lawbreaker it breeds contempt for law: it invites every man to become a law unto himself. It invites anarchy.”
I ask you, has Attorney General Eric Holder invited anarchy?
I will continue to make this case here in the People’s House at the People’s Pulpit.
And folks, I will be back.
In an op-ed for the Washington Times today, Gosar expanded on his comments.
It is no surprise that America has lost faith in its chieflaw enforcement officer, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The high-profile scandals at Mr. Holder’s Department of Justice are serious enough to warrant firing the attorney general. As the chief law enforcement official of our nation, Mr. Holder is expected to comply with the highest standards of ethics, competence and honesty. He is to follow the principle of seeking justice. As a sworn federal official, he has one primary job — to enforce the laws of the United States fairly and impartially. Instead, Mr. Holder has overlooked actual injustices, and has acted less than ethically and honestly.
Let us start with Operation Fast and Furious — the government-sanctioned gunrunning scandal that led to disaster and tragedy, including hundreds of killings. After Mr. Holder failed to provide information to Congress about the scandal, the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt of Congress. To this day Mr. Holder remains in contempt and has failed to produce the records the American people are entitled to see. For an administration that promised a new era of transparency, its secrecy and obstructionism has turned from hypocritical to ironic.
The Holder Department of Justice arguably endangered freedom of the press when it sought records of The Associated Press and targeted journalist James Rosen. Mr. Holder even approved the seizure of records for more than 20 telephone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012. Mr. Holder himself signed the subpoena for Mr. Rosen’s records, despite testifying to a committee that he did not know of such targeting. Some contend Mr. Holder committed perjury. He might also have condoned using drone strikes within the United States against U.S. citizens but for Sen. Rand Paul bringing this issue to the forefront. Keep in mind it was a letter, from the attorney general, that didn’t rule out drone strikes against U.S. citizens on American soil that started Mr. Paul’s filibuster.
In light of these scandals, my opinion is that Mr. Holder’s tenure has gone from bad to worse. The flagrant abuses directly administered by the Justice Department makes it incredibly clear that the time is long overdue for Mr. Holder to resign. A responsible chief executive would have fired him long ago. No one is above the law, including Eric Holder.
There has been a groundswell of support from Congress and millions of Americans across the country to remove Mr. Holder and appoint someone who will restore confidence in the Justice Department. Currently, 137 House members have co-sponsored my resolution expressing no confidence in the attorney general and calling for his immediate resignation. Many others in Congress have independently called for his resignation. It is time for Mr. Holder to heed those calls. If we, as citizens, did what Mr. Holder has done, we would be thrown in jail. When Mr. Holder or any government official is exempted from the law, we create a two-tiered justice system that leaves government officials immune from prosecution and licensed to act without restraint. This is the hallmark of totalitarian regimes, not the America our Founders envisioned.
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