WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a request to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in a document dispute tied to a failed law enforcement program called Operation Fast and Furious.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said in an order Monday that the effort from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee was “entirely unnecessary.”
The committee sought a contempt sanction against Holder, saying the Justice Department had failed to comply with an August order directing it to provide Congress certain documents that are at the center of the dispute.
Jackson denied the request but did order the Justice Department to produce to the committee “non-privileged” documents by Nov. 3.
Justice Department spokesman Brian Fallon said the department was “pleased that the court had rejected the committee’s latest stunt.”
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