Obama asserts executive privilege for Eric Holder's wife

Whatever else you may think of Obama give him credit for having brass. A more modest and more circumspect chief executive could never cultivate the effrontery to claim executive privilege for his attorney general's wife's email but that is just what the the President of the most transparent administration ever has done. This latest example of brazen lawlessness came to light in a FOIA lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch that seeks documents surrounding the Fast and Furious scandal.

The document details the Attorney General Holder’s personal involvement in managing the Justice Department’s strategy on media and Congressional investigations into the Fast and Furious scandal.  Notably, the document discloses that emails between Attorney General Holder and his wife Sharon Malone – as well as his mother – are being withheld under an extraordinary claim of executive privilege as well as a dubious claim of deliberative process privilege under the Freedom of Information Act.  The “First Lady of the Justice Department” is a physician and not a government employee.

Judicial Watch has not had time to review the massive document known as the Vaughn Index as it was not received until 8:34 PM yesterday, just hours ahead of the court ordered deadline. A cursory review finds:

• Numerous emails that detail Attorney General Holder’s direct involvement in crafting talking points, the timing of public disclosures, and handling Congressional inquiries in the Fast and Furious matter.

• President Obama has asserted executive privilege over nearly 20 email communications between Holder and his spouse Sharon Malone. The administration also claims that the records are also subject to withholding under the “deliberative process” exemption. This exemption ordinarily exempts from public disclosure records that could chill internal government deliberations.

• Numerous entries detail DOJ’s communications (including those of Eric Holder) concerning the White House about Fast and Furious.

• The scandal required the attention of virtually every top official of the DOJ and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF). Communications to and from the United States Ambassador to Mexico about the Fast and Furious matter are also described.

• Many of the records are already publicly available such as letters from Congress, press clips, and typical agency communications. Ordinarily, these records would, in whole or part, be subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.  Few of the records seem to even implicate presidential decision-making and advice that might be subject to President Obama’s broad and unprecedented executive privilege claim.

The Ambassador to Mexico! His boss would be Hillary Rodham Clinton? What difference does it make at this time?