Did the DoJ hide whistleblower memos that prove officials lied to Congress?

In a trail you rarely ask a question you don’t know the answer to. The same holds true for Congressional investigations. So Darrell Issa knows what’s in the memos he has subpoenaed. He knows that they tell a different story than Eric Holder told congress in sworn testimony. Which means Holder is probably guilty of perjury.

That [references to Kenneth Melson, acting head of the ATF] makes it pretty clear that senior ATF officials knew of the whistleblowers, although the memo doesn’t show any specifics about what the whistleblowers were saying. It predates the testimony of DoJ officials who insisted that no one knew of gunwalking, which either means they didn’t bother to ask Melson or anyone within the ATF, or they lied about it.

Which is it? More of the documents might shed some light on that question, but the White House has asserted executive privilege to keep them from Congressional investigators. The surfacing of this document suggests that the contents of these subpoena targets are probably already well known, but the chain of custody needs to be established. Subsequent leaks might have increasing substantive value as part of a strategy to force compliance, but clearly there is material here that the Obama administration desperately wants to keep under wraps. Their assertion of privilege won’t succeed, but it may be moot by the time it gets to court. Someone wants these documents out.