GOP Oversight Chair Admits There Is No Evidence Of White House Involvement In Fast And Furious

Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)claimed that the White House decision to invoke executive privilege to prevent the release of some documents related to the “Fast and Furious” investigation indicated some sort of admission of a White House cover-up. Today, pressed by Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) admitted that there is absolutely no evidence to back up Boehner’s allegation:

WALLACE: Do you have any evidence that White House officials were involved in these decisions, that they knowingly misled Congress, and are involved in a cover-up?

ISSA: No, we don’t. And what we are seeking are documents that we know to exist, February 4 to December [2011] that are in fact about [murdered Border Patrol agent] Brian Terry’s murder, who knew, and why people were lying about it…

WALLACE: I want to be clear, because we’ve got to get out, no evidence that the White House is involved in the cover up?
ISSA: And I hope they don’t get involved.

Watch the video:

Given that Boehner was first elected to Congress in 1990, he should certainly know better than to infer that “executive privilege” has to involve White House officials. Every administration over his lengthy Congressional tenure has asserted “deliberative process privilege” and as recently as 2008, Bush administration Attorney GeneralMichael Mukasey rejected congressional subpoenas for reports of Department of Justice interviews with the White House staff regarding the Valerie Plame Wilson identify leak investigation citing the same privilege.