inaccurate. the attorney general michael lieu casey was briefed on the ferdinand tkez case which is different than wide receive he. senator grassley put out a statement where the attorney general s office has now had to retract that statement. it also raises gregg another question about these deliberative documents. if you remember, you probably don t, at one point in time in the production of the february 4th letter the attorney general produced 2,000 documents, deliberative documents between january 27th and february 4th leading up to who composed that have important letter they later had to retract. so it is not unprecedented, if you will, that the attorney general s office release documents that reveal the inner workings of the top officials at doj and how they prepare a letter for congress or something like that. that is really what we re talking about now in terms of exerting executive privilege that the deliberative documents should not be handed over to congress. so there is in
from inquiry. and the question is going to be, what is this issue, what is it that attorney general eric holder does not want to turn over? i think it does connect the white house to fast and furious more, the fact that they are using executive privilege probe plea means the white house had some direct involvement in the program. gregg: the counter argument would be that the president isn t trying to protect national security or military or border patrol secrets. what congress is trying to get to the bottom of is who was misrepresenting, maybe even lying and covering up all of the events surrounding that infamous february 4th memo in which the department of justice said we didn t know about it, had nothing to do with it. later they had to admit that was false and they retracted it. that it seems is what the committee is after here. it s always, you know, not the crime, it s the cover up.
hearing now. congressman langford speaking, republican from oklahoma. we were not aware the president was engaged in deliberations in response to actions after february 4th, what we requested. the reason we re even interested in these documents the department of justice gave congress a false statement february 4th, 2011, about doj s knowledge of fast and furious . december the 10th brian terry was killed with two of more than 2000 guns allowed to walk in the hands of known or suspected criminals. february the 4th of 2011, the department of justice sent a letter to congress which they stated the allegation that atf sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to straw purchasers who transported them into mexico is false. atf makes every effort to interdict weapons purchased illegally and to stop their transportation to mexico. we know multiple people in the doj were involved in drafting of this letter and we know their statement was false. march the 22nd, 201
instead of closing doors others would open. investigators could unafter vail their story. remember during this period of time from february to december, ken melson and u.s. attorney dennis burke were both still in the mix. they were still in office. would their e-mails support this contention that the department of justice was entirely ignorant of the tactics of fast and furious ? and that officials under burke and melson intentionally misled washington? that is basically the allegation. and would these deliberative materials support the ag s contention or would they suggest something was wrong? the irony is, us guys, those under scrutiny that drafted and approved the february 4th letter, had nothing to do with fast and furious . they may never have even been to arizona. back to you. jenna: william, stand by if you will. this is big story we ll cover throughout the day. back to william in los angeles as we get more on this. gregg: stunning developments today. the for eight long month
intense meetings at the white house at one point. holder famously said the nation is cowardly talking about race and the like. some top white house political officials thought they should put somebody at justice, kind of help holder with political issues, worried about his political instincts. holder reacted angrily. as a result there is no such person there but holder does stay in touch with the white house on political issues. gregg: the incident with axelrod, i know. gretchen, there have been either a couple of huge mistakes or misrepresentations. february 4th, holder tells congress, justice never permitted fast and furious . that was false. he retracted it. may 5th he told congress he only heard about it a few weeks ago. that was false. he retracted it. and there are leaked affidavits to the wire taps that show holder may not be telling the truth a third time. you know, there may be