Darrell Issa Puts Details of Secret Wiretap Applications in Congressional Record

Source: Roll Call

June 29, 2012, 12:06 p.m.

In the midst of a fiery floor debate over contempt proceedings for Attorney General Eric Holder, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) quietly dropped a bombshell letter into the Congressional Record.

The May 24 letter to Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), ranking member on the panel, quotes from and describes in detail a secret wiretap application that has become a point of debate in the GOP’s “Fast and Furious” gun-walking probe.

The wiretap applications are under court seal, and releasing such information to the public would ordinarily be illegal. But Issa appears to be protected by the Speech or Debate Clause in the Constitution, which offers immunity for Congressional speech, especially on a chamber’s floor.

According to the letter, the wiretap applications contained a startling amount of detail about the operation, which would have tipped off anyone who read them closely about what tactics were being used.


Read more: http://www.rollcall.com/news/darrell_issa_puts_details_of_secret_wiretap_applications_in_congressional-215828-1.html

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this is probably the reason they held the vote as they knew DOJ wasn't going to prosecute. Slimey asshats.

updated with GOP nonsense:
Fast and Furious: GOP says wiretaps revealed 'Gunwalking' early on

The Justice Department approved the wiretap application on March 15, 2010. It includes a lengthy affidavit giving details of the case. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) contends that was enough to alert anyone who read it that a massive amount of "gunwalking" was going on. The affidavit describes in detail how ATF agents had surveilled multiple suspected gun traffickers for Mexican drug cartels, but made no arrests or interdictions. Previously, Holder had testified that the wiretap application gave no hint of gunwalking.


"Contrary to the Attorney General's statements, the enclosed wiretap affidavit contains clear information that agents were willfully allowing known straw buyers to acquire firearms for drug cartels and failing to interdict them-in some cases even allowing them to walk to Mexico. In particular, the affidavit explicitly describes the most controversial tactic of all: abandoning surveillance of known straw purchasers, resulting in the failure to interdict firearms," says Issa.


Issa's counterpart on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), today took issue with the idea that the wiretap application disclosed any hint of gunwalking. He says Issa is "hiding key information" from the very same wiretap documents.


"Sadly, it looks like Mr. Issa is continuing his string of desperate and unsubstantiated claims... His actions demonstrate a lack of concern for the facts, as well as a reckless disregard for our nation's courts and federal prosecutors who are trying to bring criminals to justice. We're not going to stoop to his level," said a Cummings spokesman.


more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-57464139-10391695/fast-and-furious-gop-says-wiretaps-revealed-gunwalking-early-on/