US House finds attorney general in contempt

June 29, 2012 08:39

In an unprecedented move, US lawmakers voted to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt, paving the way for legal action over a probe into a botched gun-running scheme.

Several furious Democrats led by Nancy Pelosi, the party's top member in the House of Representatives, stormed out of the chamber at the start of the vote on Thursday.

They were protesting what they say is highly political and partisan action by Republicans to discredit Holder and President Barack Obama's administration ahead of the November elections.

But the resolution was adopted with a vote of 255-67 in the Republican-led House. Several dozen Democrats refused to participate, but several more also voted to find the nation's top justice official in contempt.

The resolution calls for the case to be referred to a US attorney tasked with bringing a possible indictment against Holder for blocking a 16-month investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

The House was to vote on a second resolution on civil contempt, which would authorize a congressional panel to sue the Justice Department in federal court to compel officials to relinquish documents subpoenaed by Republican investigators.

The finding of contempt, the first-ever for a sitting attorney general, was immediately branded by the White House as a "transparently political stunt."

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