WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- A judge ordered U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the House Oversight Committee enter mediation in their court battle over the Fast and Furious scandal.
The action by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson follows a status report from both sides, released Friday, indicating a settlement in a lawsuit related to efforts by Congress to get records pertinent to an unsuccessful gun-tracking program in Arizona was not close.
Holder requested mediation while the committee claimed mediation would cause an unnecessary delay and asked the judge to hold arguments, as scheduled, at a hearing in April, the political news website Politico reported Tuesday.
The House voted to hold Holder in contempt of Congress last year because of his refusal to turn over documents from the scandal. The resolution allowed the committee to file a lawsuit against him in August 2012, Politico noted.
