Republican Darrell Issa Wins ‘Most Corrupt’ Award From Non-Partisan Watchdog Group CREW

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Breathe in this smoking gun...

On September 13th, Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) won an award he'd probably love to be able to decline. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions, gave Issa a Dishonorable Mention in its 8th annual Most Corrupt Members of Congress report.

CREW cites Issa for illegally revealing confidential information from a sealed wiretap in the Congressional Record — while leading a politically-motivated witch hunt intended to hurt Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder — and then shielding himself from reproach and censure by claiming that he, as a member of Congress, had constitutional protections for his unethical actions.

As CREW explains, "Rep. Issa [...] knew that by inserting the information in the Congressional Record, he would be immune from prosecution under the Constitution's Speech or Debate clause, which protects members of Congress for remarks and actions that fall within the legislative sphere." Federal law dictates that wiretap applications can only be disclosed after acquiring permission from a judge, and anyone breaking this law can be held in contempt.

The irony here is that the House of Representatives — with Issa leading the charge — were at that time (June, 2012) actively debating whether or not the attorney general — due to the botched Operation Fast and Furious, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (informally known as the ATF) — should be held in contempt. Wait, what?

A CREW spokesperson explains, "The Department of Justice and the House Ethics Committee should make clear they won't stand for attempts to do an end-run around the law by conducting thorough investigations. Rep. Issa's actions are all the more egregious given that he has urged more aggressive prosecution of those who leak confidential government information."

CREW also noted, "CREW is no defender of DOJ. We are on record as condemning the ineffective and flawed investigations carried out by the Public Integrity Section of the Criminal Division, under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. But, as CREW pointed out in a June 22, 2012 letter to Mr. Issa, his committee's vote to hold Attorney General Holder in contempt constituted an abuse of its powers and made clear Mr. Issa and his committee are not pursuing legitimate oversight, but instead are pursuing a partisan political agenda."

Ian Millhiser at Think Progress elaborates:

For nearly two years, House Oversight Chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) has tried to exploit the tragedy of a series of botched gun stings that led to a federal law enforcement agent's death in order to score political points against Attorney General Eric Holder. The gun stings that are the focus of Issa's witchhunt against Holder began when George W. Bush was president and Holder was an attorney in private practice. Nevertheless, Issa eventually forced the House Republican leadership to hold a contempt of Congress vote against Holder, although the leaders buried that vote on the same day that the Affordable Care Act was upheld in a likely attempt to prevent Issa's witchhunt from receiving much media coverage. After numerous hearings and, of course, the contempt vote, the Department of Justice's inspector general released a 471 page report that cleared Holder of any wrongdoing.

[...]

Issa's continued efforts to politicize this tragedy come at a very real cost: "When Issa drags Holder before a House committee for four hours to be nothing more than a pawn in an elaborate game set up to embarrass President Obama, that means many more hours — most likely days — that Holder and other key Justice Department officials must spent prepping for their role in Issa's withhunt. Every minute they spend preparing for this witchhunt is a minute they cannot spend ensuring that the law is fairly enforced, that national security officials in DOJ have the tools they need to operate, or that dangerous criminals are tracked down and prosecuted."

[The] Inspector General report was no whitewash. It recommended discipline against 14 DOJ officials and found "a pattern of serious failures" associated with the gun stings. In other words, it proves that Holder's Justice Department is fully capable of examining its own dirty laundry and determining which officials need to be disciplined or removed because they performed their job poorly. Issa's witchhunt does little more than distract from this important effort.

As Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government, Issa has unlimited subpoena power (as the New Yorker put it, "the power to subpoena, investigate, and harass the Obama Administration") and seems eager to employ it liberally (no pun intended), but he is less than enthusiastic about complying with any subpoenas himself. Jennifer Bendery at the Huffington Post detailed how Issa seems immune to recognizing irony and hypocrisy on a habitual basis:

In his role as chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Issa has been pressing Holder on the necessity of subpoena compliance since October 2011. [...] Holder has since turned over 7,600 pages of documents in 46 separate dumps and, since January 2011, has testified to Congress on the issue seven times. But Issa has charged that Holder is not fully complying with the subpoena and, earlier this month, threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress if he did not produce more documents.

[For] all his talk about the necessity of subpoena compliance, Issa does not seem willing to apply that standard to himself. The California Republican confirmed to Roll Call earlier this month that he has been subpoenaed in a trial involving retired baseball star Roger Clemens, who is accused of lying about steroid use during a 2008 hearing before Issa's committee. [...] Lawyers for Issa responded to Clemens' attorneys with a 47-page explanation as to why Issa does not have to comply with their subpoenas. The gist of their reasoning? He's too important, there's nothing unique about his perspective and it would require too much effort. [...] For all these reasons, "the subpoenas directed to Chairman Issa and the Committee should be quashed," Issa's lawyers conclude.

It's not the first time Issa has refused to comply with subpoenas. In September 2007, Issa was one of about a dozen House lawmakers who would not comply with a subpoena in the Duke Cunningham bribery case because, they said, the subpoena was "too vague." Issa was among those who "said in statements that they would not comply with the subpoenas on advice from House counsel, who is advising them on the matter. [...] A Democratic source familiar with the activities of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee trashed Issa for the double standard. "Only in Washington can you find a Congressman upset that DOJ won't comply with a subpoena [while also] refusing to comply with subpoenas," the source said in an email.

CREW adds, "The only possible conclusion to be drawn is that the committee was seeking fodder for a political agenda to embarrass the attorney general and, through him, President Barack Obama. Had Mr. Issa awaited the IG report, produced only a few short months later, this confrontation could have been avoided. As Mr. Issa and his committee have acknowledged, the almost-500-page report is fair and comprehensive, and adds to the voluminous evidence the committee now has to evaluate the bona fides of the Fast and Furious Operation. Mr. Issa's reckless rush to judgment demonstrates it is he who should bear the moniker "Fast and Furious.""

The most ridiculous part of this whole story is how it managed to shine a spotlight on Issa's own questionable character and background, not Eric Holder's or Barack Obama's. The New Yorker printed a devastating story on Darrell Issa in January 2011 which claimed that Issa was not only possibly the richest member of Congress (his bucks were made selling car alarms; as the New Yorker put it, "Directed Electronics, Inc. shared Issa's initials and his voice, which he recorded for the company's signature product, the Viper, an alarm that warns potential car thieves (as well as passing trucks and bursts of wind), 'Please step away from the car.'"), but he was also allegedly guilty of being an arsonist and a a car thief (his stolen car inventory supposedly included a red Maserati — can't claim the guy has cheap taste). The New Yorker article went on to describe Issa pulling guns on people at this place of business and being caught with an eye-poppingly large cache of weapons of all types (Issa is convicted felon, found guilty of illegal weapons possession), and to accuse him of being involved in many other questionable business deals and fraudulent schemes.

http://www.addicting...ward-from-crew/

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Where's all the nutjobs from VJ that were certain Holder was a criminal? Come on out! Be a man and own up to your falsehoods!

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Breathe in this smoking gun...

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2012/09/24/issa-wins-most-corrupt-award-from-crew/"]http://www.addicting...ward-from-crew/

You post an article from an EXTREMIST website and think people are really going to listen?

[one...two...tree 2,762]

You post an article from an EXTREMIST website and think people are really going to listen?

Click on the hypertext links to find the sources. The mainstream media has already published the news that the commission found no wrongdoing by AG Holder. This was nothing more than a partisan attack by the Republicans to try and bring down the Obama Administration. Issa has abused his power and should step down. He is corrupt.

[Obama 2012 1,714]

I see, so you're trying to argue that an individual who has access to certain files that no one else has access to in congress is somehow looking out for the best interests of the nation all by themselves by clearning Eric Holder of his impeachable activities? The OIG doesn't even have authority over Eric Holder to begin with anyway.

Not even you can be that naive to believe that Holder (and members of the Obama administration) are innocent in this ordeal.

When you're hiding as much as they are hiding, it's not all black & white. There's a lot more to this that they are going to an exponential amount of trouble to hide from congress and the American people.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Melanie Sloan serves as CREW's Executive Director and is a nationally recognized expert on congressional ethics. Prior to starting CREW, she served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia where, from 1998-2003, she successfully tried cases before dozens of judges and juries.

Before becoming a prosecutor, Ms. Sloan served as Minority Counsel for the House Judiciary Committee, working on criminal justice issues for Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI). Ms. Sloan also served as Counsel to the Crime Subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by then-Representative Charles Schumer (D-NY). There, she drafted portions of the 1994 Crime Bill, including the Violence Against Women Act. In 1993, Ms. Sloan served as Nominations Counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, under then-Chairman Joseph Biden (D-DE). Prior to working for the Congress, she was an associate at Howrey and Simon in Washington D.C.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/pages/melanie-sloan

Commie hack. Who cares?

[JohnR! 5,495]

Breathe in this smoking gun...

http://www.addicting...ward-from-crew/

It should come as no surprise, since the people of California has known that for a while...

Issa is almost as corrupt as Jeff Sessions....

Edited September 25, 2012 by Gegel