buffalo, new york. a woman who answered the phone at the administration office according to ap says no other information is being released right now. a police helicopter is circling over the medical center s campus which includes a hospital with 550 beds. imagine a hospital on lockdown, how much access they can get the patients. martha: you feel good you can talk to your wife but you feel better when she is out of that. we ll stay on top of that. u.s. attorney general eric holder now suggesting that he is willing to compromise, was the word that he used, and demands that he hands over thousands more documents in what has become known as the botched gun running sting, fast and furious. here is the ranking member on the senate judiciary committee, senator charlie grassley questioning him yesterday. on what legal ground are you withholding that email? the president can t claim executive privilege to withhold
house saying his committee is going to move forward with a contempt of congress action against the attorney general. there was some discussion about that. take a listen. on what legal ground are you withholding that e-mail? the president can t claim executive privilege to withhold that e-mail. is that correct? i myself am offering to sit down with the speak beer, the chairman, with you, whoever, to try to work our way through this in an attempt to avoid a constitutional crisis. reporter: and so the attorney general said he was willing to compromise to see if he could work something out to head off that vote on contempt of congress in that congressional committee next wednesday. another hot topic, of course, has been all the national security leaks. a lot of critical national security information ending up on the front page of the new york times and elsewhere. republican lindsey graham of south carolina talked a little bit about the investigation into those leaks that s been
resigning. trace: a house panel announced it will vote next week on whether to hold the attorney general in contempt for not cooperating with its investigation. mike emanuel is live on capitol hill. attorney general holder also faced the questions about the contempt efforts. what did he say? reporter: that is right. we know a lost republicans on capitol hill feel the attorney general has access to information that reveals who signed off on the tactics used in fast and furious, that led to the death of the border agent^. here is the top republican on the committee, trying to get at that. on what legal ground are you withholding that e-mail, the president can t claim executive privilege to withhold that e-mail, is that correct? i am prepared to make compromises with regard to the documents that can be made available and offering to sit down with the speaker, with the chairman, with you, whoever, to try to work our way through this in an attempt to avoid a
withholding that e-mail, along with every other document after february 4th, 2011. on what legal ground are you withholding that e-mail? the president can t claim executive privilege to withhold that e-mail. is that correct? let me say this. we have reached out to chairman issa, members of the leadership on the house side to try to work our way through these issues. we ve had, i think, sporadic contacts, and we are prepared to make i am prepared to make compromises with regard to the documents that can be made available. there is a basis for the withholding of these documents if they deal with deliberative but not on executive privilege, right? the tradition has always been by members of the justice department, whether they re led by republicans or democrats to withhold. but in spite of that, i want to
thank you, chuck. developments today in that priest sex abuse scandal that is rocking the catholic church. pope benedict s private secretary today defended the pontiff s prolonged i lens in the hundreds of abuse cases in the pope s native germany. some are in the pope s former diocese where he served as archbishop. i talked this morning with one of two prominent people speaking to put the pope on trial for crimes against humanity. author and journalist christopher hickens is working with british lawyers to see if the pope can be actually arrested when he visits britain in september. there s a very famous human rights council in london called jeff robertson who s written a number of books on universal jurisdiction, who knows very well about international criminal court and who thinks the vatican can t claim sovereign immunity as a state. which is what the church has already said in advance. the church obviously knows it s in danger here.