On this weekend’s broadcast of “Fox News Sunday,” Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume made the case that there could indeed be evidence that the Department of Justice is involved in a cover-up of operation-turned-scandal Fast and Furious.
Hume questioned the Obama administration’s use of executive privilege to withhold documents pertaining to the program.
“I think the scent of a cover-up is pretty strong,” Hume said. “The documents are being withheld — I don’t think there is any evidence that this is not executive privilege made because of presidential communications, which is where the strongest privilege lies, are involved here. This is internal Justice Department deliberations that, so far as we know, don’t involve the president or the White House. And what the Justice Department is saying is we got to have confidentiality here and not have Congress snooping in our internal deliberations. Well, the courts recognized some privilege in that area but not much, and I think it is basically a frivolous claim.”
According to Hume, Congress has acted legitimately during its investigation of Fast and Furious, despite the several criticisms of overreach.
“There was a false letter sent here and evidence of cover-up,” he continued. “The committee is trying to get to the bottom of it and see who said what to whom and when and what the process was. This is the kind of things that investigating committees in Congress are entitled to, where executive agencies which are creatures of Congress by the way — they’re part of the executive and created by Congress and funded by Congress, are supposed to investigate. But the effect of it will be to delay matters until probably after the election. That I think satisfies the Obama White House and the Holder Justice Department’s purpose here, which is to put this off.”
Later, Fox News contributor Kirsten Powers and Hume sparred over the of the legitimacy of the investigation.
Transcript as follows:
WALLACE: Don’t you think in the scrambling around in the months after there might be interesting information that comes out? “Well, wait a minute, I told you about that. I told Lanny Breuer or head of the criminal division. You know, Holder got that memo on that day.”
POWERS: It is interesting, but how is it going to change anything?
HUME: But Kirsten, the Congress is manifestly entitled to investigate these processes that led to a false letter and the aftermath of. They are investigating two things. What happened that led to the agent’s death and what happened in the aftermath.
POWERS: We know what happened in regards to the agent’s death.
HUME: Are they not entitled to investigate the aftermath?
POWERS: It was the program. What they are trying to do is pin it on Eric Holder. That’s all they’re trying to do. It is not whether the program was good or bad. That program was bad. It was stupid. It has been shut down and investigated.
HUME: A false letter was written. How did that come about?
