Where The Holder Contempt Resolution Goes Next

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Rep. Darrell Issa’s decision to push forward with a resolution finding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress has set up a confrontation between the executive and legislative branches of government which could take years to settle.

In the short term, the House will vote next week on the resolution finding Holder in contempt of Congress for not turning over documents requested as part of the House Oversight Committee’s probe into the ATF operation known as Fast and Furious. In the long term, the battle is headed for a slow slog through the federal court system, where the debate will be hashed out by lawyers in D.C.’s camera-free U.S. District Courthouse instead of cable news hits.

President Barack Obama’s decision to assert executive privilege over the documents produced after a February 4, 2011 letter which falsely denied that ATF allowed guns to “walk” during the operation could complicate things a bit more. Once the House votes on the contempt measure, a 19th century federal law requires federal prosecutors to refer contempt citations to a grand jury for possible prosecution.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ron Machen would receive the contempt citation, putting him in the awkward position of holding a grand jury focusing on his boss. Thankfully for Machen, he’s got an out: both Democratic and Republican administrations have said that prosecutors can’t initiate a prosecution once executive privilege is asserted.

Experts told TPM that contempt proceedings are “mostly for show” and the legal consequences are likely to be small. Charlie Savage writing in The New York Times, says the contempt citation “has symbolic value and can taint reputations” but has little practical effect.

Still, as the House Judiciary Committee did during the Bush administration, the House Oversight Committee could file its own lawsuit to try to have a judge enforce the contempt measure. But as NBC’s Pete Williams explains, that could take quite a long time:

[I]f this does end up in court, it could take up to two years to resolve, given the time for a trial and subsequent appeals. However, a contempt citation is valid only during the Congress which approved it. Each term of Congress lasts only two years, so if the issue was still in the courts when this Congress ends in a year and a half, the contempt citation would evaporate, and so would any lawsuit.

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