House Speaker John Boehner reportedly pushed President Barack Obama on Wednesday to make Attorney General Eric Holder comply with the congressional subpoena of Operation Fast and Furious documents.
Boehner was meeting for lunch with the president and “other congressional leaders” to discuss upcoming issues. An aide in Boehner’s office told The Daily Caller the president talked about his “to-do-list” and the group discussed several other major topics on the political horizon.
The Boehner aide said one topic the Speaker brought up was Holder’s failure to comply with the Fast and Furious subpoena. “The Speaker also asked the President to encourage the Attorney General to provide the information Congressional investigators have sought about the Fast and Furious operation,” the Boehner aide said in an email.
It’s unclear what, if anything, Obama said in response. The White House did not immediately respond when asked.
Holder has failed to comply with House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa’s Oct. 12, 2011, subpoena of him on Fast and Furious. Holder has thus far failed to comply with all 22 categories of the subpoena that requires him to provide Congress with documents relating to Fast and Furious. On 13 of the categories, Holder has provided no documents. On the other nine subpoena categories, Holder is still far from compliant.
Issa is planning to move forward with contempt of Congress proceedings against Holder if he continues failing to comply. The Department of Justice claims the contempt proceedings are “unwarranted.” (RELATED: Full coverage of Operation Fast and Furious)
Last week, Boehner publicly threw his full support behind Issa’s push to enforce the subpoena.
“I’m supporting their efforts to hold those people in the Department of Justice accountable for what happened,” Boehner said then. “The committee has work to do; they know what they have to do. They’re pursuing a lot of unanswered questions. And I would hope that they would continue that.”
“All options are on the table,” Boehner added during that press conference.
In his account of the lunch meeting between Obama, Boehner and other congressional leaders, White House spokesman Jay Carney did not mention that Boehner brought up Fast and Furious.
The White House has avoided talking about the scandal and would not comment when President Obama signed the Brian A. Terry Memorial Act into law on Tuesday. Terry was the Border Patrol agent who was killed with Fast and Furious weapons that fell into the hands of Mexican drug cartels.
Boehner’s aide also said the Speaker was “was very pleased with the sandwiches served” at the lunch.