I am not going to refer to the current President or the presumptive nominee. For my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, I am going to refer to the history of this body because I think the study of the history of this body should tell Members on both sides of the aisle that this is an appropriate contempt. It will lead eventually to compliance and, again, to holding this body as a coequal branch of government. I might remind my colleagues, some of them here in the room, Mr. Speaker, that in 2007, this body held the White House counsel on behalf of the President of the United States, then-President Bush, in contempt for refusing to show up before this very committee, Judiciary. In 2012, this body held a previous Attorney General--in a very similar situation affecting the same two committees that have been speaking here, Oversight and Accountability and Judiciary--Eric Holder, in contempt because he told us that if we would take 200-and-some documents, that was all that was left, and end our case, he would give them to us. Otherwise, he would withhold them. We held him in contempt, and Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an appointee of President Obama, held several things, including that President Obama had clearly falsely claimed an executive privilege, probably based on being misled by then-Attorney General Eric Holder. In fact, 10,000-plus documents were turned over to the United States Congress. The then-Attorney General had lied.…
Share & report
More from Darrell Issa
Our colleague Rahm Emanuel famously said: ``You never let a serious crisis go to waste.'' Today, my Democratic colleagues are not letting a serious crisis go to waste. While America is focused on the tragedy halfway around the world in…
Once again, the minority has not only no objections, but we support this important legislation, thank the office for bringing it to our attention, and move its immediate passage. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
I want to thank the Energy and Commerce Committee for giving me an opportunity to, one, speak in support of this bill; and, two, take just a couple of minutes to say what is wrong with this body on one bill that you won't see here today…
It is now my pleasure to yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Missouri (Mrs. Wagner), who has done so much on this bill.





