CBS News is reporting that the House Oversight Committee will vote sometime next week on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for his stonewalling in the Fast and Furious gun walking case.

The Justice Department has maintained it has cooperated fully with the congressional investigation, turning over tens of thousands of documents and having Holder testify to Congress on the topic at least eight times.

 

However, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., says the Justice Department has refused to turn over tens of thousands of pages of documents. Those include materials created after Feb. 4, 2011, when the Justice Department wrote a letter to Congress saying no gunwalking had occurred. The Justice Department later retracted the denial.

 

"The Obama Administration has not asserted Executive Privilege or any other valid privilege over these materials and it is unacceptable that the Department of Justice refuses to produce them. These documents pertain to Operation Fast and Furious, the claims of whistleblowers, and why it took the Department nearly a year to retract false denials of reckless tactics," Issa wrote in an announcement of the vote to be released shortly. It will reveal the vote is scheduled for Wednesday, June 20.

 

Issa says the Justice Department can still put a stop to the contempt process at any time by turning over the subpoenaed documents.

 

If the House Oversight Committee approves the contempt citation, the matter would likely be scheduled for a full House vote.

Issa has Holder cornered and by scheduling a contempt vote, it may shake loose a few documents requested by the House.

But Holder probably won't comply completely and we'll have to go through the same process again. Holder is trying to play out the clock on Fast and Furious and if Obama ends up a one term president, he just might succeed.