Today’s So You Think You Can Dance! at the White House got heated on the subject of Eric Holder and his evident perjury before Congress. Fox’s Ed Henry read Holder’s May 15 quote to White House spokesman Jay Carney.
“In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material — this is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.”
Then said, reasonably, that “We know he was involved in it, at the very least, that’s the question. Was he not telling the truth, on that point? He was involved in it.”
Carney responded: “Involved in what?”
Henry: “He signed off on the search warrant! Are you not involved, after signing off on a search warrant?”
Carney: “I would refer you to the Justice Department.”
The Justice Department answers to the president. Barack Obama could fire Eric Holder, if he chose to. We’ll call Carney’s referral to DOJ a dodge.
Carney continued, struggling for words: “But you guys are conflating, ya know, the…the…subpoena with prosecution.”
Because, of course, subpoenas have nothing to do with and never ever lead to prosecutions. Even ones, like the one Holder signed on James Rosen, that accused him of criminal complicity for trying to get a source to leak information to him.
If Holder’s DOJ had no intention of using the Rosen subpoena to prosecute him, then what was the point of the subpoena, and did Holder and/or his DOJ lie to the judge from whom they obtained the warrant? Carney seems to be suggesting that that’s the case, opening Holder up to a second perjury charge.
You can watch the video here. Carney looks like even he isn’t buying what he’s saying on the subject. He looks tired and uninterested in the meaning of the words coming from his own mouth. He points the reporters back to “what the attorney general said,” which points in two conflicting directions. That’s the point Henry was getting at. Carney wraps up, saying: “I don’t see the conflict.”
Jay Carney the Time magazine reporter would see it, clear as day. Jay Carney the flak sees no evil and hears no evil if it emanates from his bosses.
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