White House spokesman Jay Carney today declared that President Barack Obama has full confidence in his controversial Attorney General Eric Holder, despite the controversy over the department’s “Operation Fast and Furious” international gun-running program.
“He absolutely stands by the attorney general and thinks he’s doing an excellent job,” Carney said during a midday press conference Thursday.
Carney also refused to answer questions about the new DOJ bribery scandal revealed by the Daily Caller late Wednesday evening.
A Justice Department source told TheDC that Holder has delayed action on indictments related to a financial crime ring following the discovery that two of Holder’s prosecutors accepted cash bribes in the case.
Obama and Holder have been friends and allies for years, and the president’s support for his attorney general is rallying Democratic legislators to shield Holder from growing GOP criticism.
A Holder resignation would tarnish Obama’s campaign plans, and perhaps spur additional coverage in English-language and Spanish-language media of the program, which resulted in the deaths of 300 Mexican nationals and a U.S. Border Patrol agent.
But Obama’s support for Holder would damage his own standing even more if investigators were to uncover more evidence that showed Holder approved the deadly program. (RELATED: Full coverage of Operation Fast and Furious)
More than 100 Republican Representatives have cast “no confidence” votes on Holder or called for his resignation.
Carney said Holder and the administration have cooperated with congressional investigators, partly by having Holder testify six times on the scandal.
However, Holder has admitted that his department provided incorrect information to Congress on at least one occasion. And he was forced to change his own testimony about when he first learned of the Fast and Furious program.
Fast and Furious was a program of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, overseen by Holder’s DOJ. It sent thousands of weapons to Mexican drug cartels via straw purchasers — people who legally purchased guns in the United States with the known intention of illegally trafficking them somewhere else.
At least 300 people in Mexico were killed with Fast and Furious weapons, as was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. The identities of the Mexican victims are unknown. Allegations have surfaced that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata was also killed with Fast and Furious weapons.