More subpoenas could come in the Fast and Furious case

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http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/local_news/investigations/more-subpoenas-could-come-in-the-fast-and-furious-case

More subpoenas could come in the Fast and Furious case

Posted: 01/25/2012

By: Lori Jane Gliha


PHOENIX - More subpoenas could be coming in the Congressional investigation into ATF’s controversial Fast and Furious case.

In a letter sent Tuesday to the US Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Darrell Issa reserved the right to re-request testimony from Patrick Cunningham, chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Arizona.

Cunningham had been subpoenaed to testify during a January 24, 2012 Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, but last week, Cunningham’s attorney responded to the subpoena by saying his client would “assert his constitutional privilege not to be compelled to be a witness against himself.”

“Mr. Cunningham’s broad assertion of his Fifth Amendment privilege raises the specter that the Department has allowed him to continue in his position as Chief of the Criminal Division knowing that he might have criminal culpability himself,” Issa wrote in the letter to Holder...

Issa should immunize Cunningham and start asking him some awkward questions.

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1. There are a couple of things the committee can do.

One is give Cunningham limited immunity. The other bringing the whistleblowers (Vincent Ceflau and others for instance) and put a panel up along with Cunningham, and ask them what they know about F&F. The whistleblowers tell their side of the story, and when it gets to Cunningham, he takes the fifth. Having some experienced agents detail F&F and then the head prosecutor sitting their with the refrain of "under the advice of counsel........" certainly would do nothing to enhance the case of Holder and Co.