Washington (CNN) — The White House and the Justice Department made clear Friday what had been expected all along: Attorney General Eric Holder will not face criminal prosecution under the contempt of Congress citation passed by the U.S. House.
Legal experts noted this week in the runup to Thursday’s House vote that President Barack Obama’s assertion of executive privilege in the case would prevent a criminal prosecution under a practice dating to the Reagan administration.
The House also cited Holder for civil contempt to give it the option of filing a lawsuit compelling Holder to turn over documents sought by Oversight Committee investigators linked to the failed Operation Fast and Furious weapons crackdown. Such a case was expected to take years to complete.
A letter Friday from the Justice Department to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, who led the investigation that brought the contempt charge against Holder, explained that “across administrations of both political parties, the longstanding position of the Department of Justice has been and remains that we will not prosecute” in such a circumstance.
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