1/22/2012

Obama administration political appointee "to assert the Fifth in gun-smuggling probe"

What would the media be doing if this had happened for a Bush administration official? The Obama administration try passing the buck to this administration official and he takes the fifth? From USA Today:

A federal prosecutor in Arizona plans to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination as part of a congressional inquiry into a botched federal gun investigation known as "Operation Fast and Furious," USA TODAY's Kevin Johnson reports.

That investigation had allowed hundreds of firearms to flow into Mexico to arm drug cartel enforcers.

A lawyer representing Patrick Cunningham, criminal division chief in the Arizona U.S. attorney's office, informed the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that he would assert the privilege rather than testify in the committee's probe of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation.

Rep. Darrell Issa, the California Republican who chairs the committee, calls the prosecutor's decision "a significant indictment of the (Justice) Department's integrity'' and marked the first time a witness in the inquiry had sought such protection.

Justice officials have told the committee that they relied on inaccurate information relayed to them by Cunningham in responding to House investigators. . . .

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