Issa Fires Another Salvo in Gunwalker Battle

Congressman Darrell Issa, (R-Calif.), the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has fired another broadside at the administration in the ongoing battle to get to the bottom of the Operation Fast and Furious debacle today, according to a release from Issa spokeswoman Becca Watkins:

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today announced the issuance of a subpoena to Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. Mr. Cunningham’s repeated refusals to testify voluntarily have forced the Committee to use compulsory process.

“During the course of our investigation, the Committee has learned of the outsized role played by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office – and you specifically – in approving the unacceptable tactics used in Fast and Furious,” Chairman Issa wrote to Cunningham in a letter informing him of the subpoena.  “Senior Justice Department officials have recently told the Committee that you relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress.

“These officials told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used.  In fact, documents obtained confidentially just last week appear to confirm that you remained steadfast in your belief that no unacceptable tactics were used, even after the Department’s initial response to the congressional inquiry.  Given that the Attorney General has labeled these tactics as unacceptable and Fast and Furious as ‘fundamentally flawed,’ this position is startling.^”

The subpoena requires Cunningham to appear on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 for a deposition.

Issa’s also fired off another one of his famous letters to Cunningham. According to the letter Cunningham suddenly canceled an interview with Issa’s committee without warning, forcing the subpoena.

It’ll be interesting to see if the man they’ve been trying to talk to since August will actually comply with the subpoena, given that the Holder Justice Department seems to feel it, and the administration, need only comply with the laws they like.

This just gets deeper and uglier the longer it goes on.