As expected, the Department of Justice informed Congress Friday that the U.S. attorney will not prosecute Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over documents related to the much-maligned "Fast and Furious" gun-walking probe. "The longstanding position of the Department of Justice has been and remains that we will not prosecute an executive branch official under the contempt of Congress statue for withholding subpoenaed documents pursuant to a presidential assertion of executive privilege," Attorney General James Cole said in a letter to the House speaker John Boehner. The announcement came a day after the House voted to hold Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress, making him the first sitting attorney general ever to be held in contempt by the full House. Holder slammed Thursday's votes as "a regrettable culmination of what became a misguided – and politically motivated – investigation during an election year."
