Holder Hires Williams & Connolly in Contempt Case

In a 255-67 vote, Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress yesterday. Holder was found guilty for not cooperating with Congress by refusing to hand over documents concerning the Obama administration’s Fast and Furious program, which the CNN article on the vote describes as a “so-called ‘gun-walking’ operation [that] allowed roughly 2,000 guns into Mexico with the goal of tracking them to Mexican drug cartels.”

According to the WSJ Law Blog post, the next step for Holder is a referral to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. Ronald Machen, the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney, will decide whether or not to press charges against Holder. Although government lawyers deal with Holder’s legal troubles related to the Attorney General’s position, Holder has hired lawyers from Williams & Connolly to represent him, the Law Blog explains. CNN adds, “Legal experts [believe,] based on recent precedent, that [it] could take years to reach any final decision in the civil case,” and Machen is an Obama-appointee that “ultimately answers to Holder” himself.