House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said that Attorney General Eric Holder was reminiscent of the notorious Menendez brothers in responding to the move by House Republicans Thursday to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Issa was asked about the attorney general's statement in New Orleans shortly following the 255-67 vote, in which Holder dismissed the move as "reckless," and accused Republicans of chasing "truly absurd conspiracy theories" that were "unsupported by fact" to score political points.
"Well, the attorney general was a little bit like, if you remember the Menendez brothers who killed their parents, and then if they claimed they were orphans it would have been equally genuine," Issa responded to Fox News's Greta Van Susteren.
"Ultimately he is saying we don't have facts. Well, the facts we have points to the cover-up in people in Justice who weren't being given the documents," the lawmaker continued. "It's rather self-serving to say we don't have all the proof of what we are trying to discover, even though we have testimony that indicates high ranking individuals in Justice are ultimately responsible for 'Fast and Furious.'"
Lyle and Erik Menendez famously asked for leniency after being convicted of the brutal murder of their parents because they were now orphans.
Issa also called the decision of House Democrats to walk out of the vote on contempt charges in protest "disappointing."
"Their walking out was probably symbolic of the fact that in 2008 something similar happened among Republicans," Issa said, referring to Republicans walking out in protest of contempt hearings against Bush administration officials. "What's disappointing, though, is the facts were lost. A lot of things were said on the House floor today that do not bear any resemblance to the truth."
The California lawmaker went on to pledge to continue his investigation in the memory of the border patrol agent who was slain with one of the weapons involved in the "Fast and Furious" gun-walking program.
"My statement is to the Terry family that in fact we will continue with the investigation to try to get to the people responsible for their son, their family members' death, and we will let the court and the rest of the process play out for the attorney general," Issa said.
The Department of Justice has maintained that they are only withholding documents to protect agents currently investigating Mexican drug cartels, and the White House has it they tried to reasonably accommodate congressional document requests.
"Republicans pushed for political theater rather than legitimate Congressional oversight," said White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer in a statement. "Over the past fourteen months, the Justice Department accommodated Congressional investigators, producing 7,600 pages of documents, and testifying at eleven Congressional hearings. In an act of good faith, this week the Administration made an additional offer which would have resulted in the Committee getting unprecedented access to documents dispelling any notion of an intent to mislead. But unfortunately, a politically-motivated agenda prevailed and instead of engaging with the President in efforts to create jobs and grow the economy, today we saw the House of Representatives perform a transparently political stunt."
