By Steven Nelson– Eric Holder made history in 2009 as the first African-American U.S. attorney general. If Rep. Paul Gosar has his way, Holder can add another first to his bio: the first cabinet secretary to be impeached.
Gosar, R-Ariz., tells U.S. News he plans to either draft articles of impeachment or co-sponsor existing impeachment legislation introduced in November by Rep. Pete Olson, R-Texas, which has 26 co-sponsors. He anticipates deciding between the two options next week.
Gosar is upset about a slew of issues, ranging from the Obama administration admittedly ignoring a law that requires congressional notification before Guantánamo Bay detainees are transferred, to Holder’s Department of Justice failing to prosecute IRS employees who targeted political groups.
“We’ve seen a wanton disrespect for the rule of law,” he says. “Very, very poor legal counsel is being given to the president by the attorney general.”
“Flooding our streets with illegal aliens who are being abandoned without resources is not just inhumane and cruel, it is a crime and federal law bans alien smuggling,” he said in a Thursday press release. “This is the most lawless administration in the history. … It starts at the top with Eric Holder and if the chief law enforcement officer of the United States is not going to enforce the laws of this land, then he should be impeached.”
Though Gosar’s advocacy of impeachment may be brushed off as an insignificant move from a backbencher, his participation in fact may seriously threaten the attorney general.
Gosar previously succeeded in recruiting a majority of House Republicans to demand Holder’s resignation amid a congressional probe into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Operation Fast and Furious, in which ATF agents allowed guns (later tied to murders) to be sold to Mexican gangs.
Each additional member’s demand was chronicled in the press, generating many months of frustration for Holder.
“You guys need to – you need to stop this. It’s not an organic thing that’s just happening. You guys are behind it,” a finger-pointing attorney general chided when a reporter asked in November 2011 about the resignation demands.
Gosar’s crusade culminated in the House voting 255-67 in June 2012 to find Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents. Seventeen Democrats voted with all but two Republicans.
The waters calmed after President Barack Obama declared executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents. Holder declined to enforce the House’s contempt citation against himself.
Gosar says he’s renewing the fight, and unlike demands for resignation, impeachment is something a House majority can act upon.
“My calls have been very, very successful in the Republican aspect and right now I’m working on the leadership in the House,” he says. “It’s a difficult move because it means we’re coming to the last vestiges of how we deal with how we solve these problems, but when people look at the facts, we can’t keep doing this, we have to be a law-abiding country.”
