A federal judge recently turned down an executive privilege claim by the Justice Department to withhold documents related to the “Fast and Furious” gun tracking dispute.
U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson Berman’s Jan. 19, Tuesday, rejection stems from a suit filed by the House Republicans back in 2012 to acquire thousands of emails to and from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in their bid to keep track of guns throughout the United States Southwest border.
The operation set off a political scandal leading to the documents dispute that was waged mainly between Congress and former Attorney General Eric Holder, Yahoo News reported, a legal clash that resulted in Holder being charged with contempt of Congress.
While the Justice Department has already obtained thousands of pages of documents, Congress has continued its search for more records the Justice Department has claimed it was within their discretion to withhold, according to Fox News.
Based on Judge Berman’s decision, the Justice Department is wrong in its overall assertion of executive privilege since it has already revealed a majority of the information it seeks to withhold via other channels, ABC News said.
Berman further maintained any harm stemming from the disclosure would merely be incremental at this point, as the records in dispute need to be brought to light.
The Justice Department’s other grounds regarding privacy concerns and foreign policy are "best left to the process of negotiation and accommodation." Berman said.
With the recent ruling, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which number among those pushing to disclose the documents, will be able to move forward with its investigation.
Utah Republican representative, Jason Chaffetz, who chairs the committee said that Judge Berman’s decision, while it did not give them access to all of the emails and documents concerned, represented an important step forward into uncovering the truth.
