Things just went from bad to worse for Attorney General Eric Holder.
Last week, we noted that Holder was setting Deputy Attorney General James Cole up as the fall guy for the AP scandal. Obama said he had “complete confidence” in Holder and it looked like, once again, the attorney general would survive the storm.
Last night, NBC reported that Holder signed off on the search warrant for James Rosen’s e-mails:
Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on a controversial search warrant that identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a “possible co-conspirator” in violations of the Espionage Act and authorized seizure of his private emails, a law enforcement official told NBC News on Thursday.
It gets even worse. As Hot Air noted, Holder may have perjured himself. In testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee last week, he said:
In regard to potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material. This is not something I’ve ever been involved in, heard of, or would think would be wise policy.
As Hot Air pointed out, this could get really bad:
There is no other way to view this except as a lie. Even if Holder wasn’t under oath, that would constitute a felony punishable by up to five years in prison. It certainly should produce at least a resignation, and almost assuredly would require the appointment of a special prosecutor, especially since the next person down in the organization, James Cole, is suspected of doing the same thing with reporters.
It turns out that Holder was under oath, and this wasn’t even the first time he’s potentially perjured himself. Holder was accused of perjury during the Fast and Furious investigation when it was reported that he had been briefed on the matter in 2010, but told Congress he had heard about it in 2011.
Not surprisingly, Republicans like Sarah Palin and RNC Chairman Reince Priebus have called for Holder’s resignation.
But the left has joined in, too. When people on the right are calling for the resignation of a member of Obama’s cabinet, it’s just another day in Washington. When Salon is publishing an article titled Eric Holder versus journalism and The Huffington Post uses its home page to demand his resignation, it’s gotten pretty bad.
This may be the first time that Sarah Palin and The Huffington Post have agreed on something. Is a resignation coming? The Obama administration has been known to do Friday evening bad-news dumps. There’s still time…
