Twenty House Republicans call for Holder impeachment

A total of 20 House Republicans signed on to a proposal Thursday calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder. 

The lawmakers — led By Texas Republican Rep. Pete Olson — charged Holder with perjury, failure to comply with subpoenas and failure to discharge the duties of attorney general. 

{mosads}”For nearly five years, Attorney General Holder has systematically deceived Congress and destroyed the credibility of the Justice Department in the eyes of the American people,” Olson said.

Olson’s office said the charges “clearly fall under ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ offenses of the Constitution.”

The 19 GOP cosponsors are: Reps. Larry Bucshon (Ind.), Blake Farenthold (Texas), David Roe (R-Tenn.), Randy Weber (R-Texas), Lynn Westmoreland (Ga.), Roger Williams (Texas), Ted Yoho (Fla.) Louie Gohmert (Texas), Michele Bachmann (Minn.), Bill Flores (Texas), Mark Amodei (Nev.), Jim Bridenstine (Okla.), Scott DesJarlais (Tenn), Jeff Duncan (S.C.), Duncan Hunter (Calif.), Sam Johnson (R-Texas), Steve Stockman (R-Texas), Mike Conaway (R-Texas), and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

The Justice Department did not respond for comment. 

In June 2012, The Republican-led House voted overwhelmingly to hold Holder in criminal contempt for not complying with congressional subpoena’s related to the botched Fast and Furious gun-running campaign. 

“Still, he continued to mislead and thwart congressional efforts to bring the truth to the American people,” Olson said in a statement. 

The four charges start with a rehash of that scandal. 

Holder “engaged in a pattern of conduct incompatible with the trust and confidence placed in him in that position by refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Oct. 12, 2011,” according to a summary of the charges. 

The second article charges Holder with failure to enforce laws including the Defense of Marriage Act — which has since been invalidated by the Supreme Court — as well as the Justice Department’s decision this year to relax mandatory minimum sentencing for low-level drug offenders. 

The third article charges that Holder has failed to prosecute anyone in the Internal Revenue Service scandal earlier this year in which certain conservative groups were targeted for extra scrutiny while applying for tax-exempt status. 

The final article holds that Holder perjured himself earlier this year after saying he had no knowledge of any potential prosecution of the media for disclosure of classified material.

However, it was subsequently revealed that Fox News reporter James Rosen was classified as a co-conspirator in a national security leak case in order to seize his phone records and emails. 

Holder has maintained the designation was used as a tool to find the source of the leak to Rosen, and the Justice Department never had any intention of persecuting him.