GOP leaders demand gun-program details

WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) -- House Republican leaders demanded U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder turn over to congressional investigators documents related to the Fast and Furious program.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., and House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., joined Rep. Darrell Issa, R.-Calif., in demanding Holder comply with a 7-month-old subpoena seeking the documents on the failed gun-tracking program, The Hill reported.

In a letter to Holder sent Friday, the Republican leaders stated, "As co-equal branches of the U.S. government, the relationship between the legislative and executive branches must be predicated on honest communications and cannot be clouded by allegations of obstruction."

Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has drafted a resolution that would hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress for not responding to Issa's October 2011 subpoena for internal Justice Department documents.

In the letter, the House GOP leaders said, "If necessary, the House will act to fulfill our Constitutional obligations in the coming weeks."

In Operation Fast and Furious, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents allowed weapons to be illegally bought and circulated on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. Two of the weapons turned up after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in southern Arizona a year ago, and many others reportedly were used in crimes in Mexico.

Holder has said he didn't know about tactics involved in Fast and Furious.