are you aware of whether general mukasey reviewed the memo? >> i do not. >> i did not wanting out for anyone's attendance at the meeting. but i want to be clear about that. but with a that caveat are you currently able to say whether there were other high ranking doj officials who attended the november 7 meeting? >> i just don't know, senator, who attended the meeting. >> but it would not have been beyond the pale for other top officials to have been briefed on this, either in preparation or otherwise? >> it is certainly possible. i just don't know. >> another one -- do you have any knowledge whether deputy attorney general morford was briefed on the program or tactics? >> i don't know that, either. >> knowledge of any members of any other departments briefed on the program of the tactics? >> i don't know how extensively it was briefed. >> lanny davis, current criminal division head, was briefed -- testified he was briefed after it was closed, wide receiver was closed in 2010 did you know if his predecessor fischer was similarly briefed? >> i

attorney general mukasey, and others in the department. there is no evidence before us here that they knew or participated in any wrongdoing, is there? >> yes, i held my testimony was clear. >> and it has been. thank you. also an ongoing investigation that will eventually disclose whether or not and who knew about what was going on. i want to thank you for being so candid and straight forward on that point. i want to join my colleagues in expressing my determination that there should be more assistance insufficient support for our police on the streets of connecticut, in our neighborhoods as well as the firefighters and other personnel that i would regard as law morecement, which aren't sense, the cops on the beat the protect his day in and get out. -- that protect us day in and day out. they did the bulk of law enforcement for our nation and i appreciate them and thank you for your support. i think perhaps for me, one of the most important aspects of your testimony today is really the vigor and intensity that the department of justice is

attorney general of michael mukasey and the mexican attorney general follows a failed attempt by u.s.ew technique to stop guns going to mexico. instead of immediately intercepting illegal arms sales, agents paid gun dealers to help them catch illegal buyers. >> they would follow them from my house to a stash house and guns reloaded into the vehicles and driven across the border. >> one buyer was a known smuggler. this december, 2007 memo explains what went wrong. >> they said that they called the mexican authorities ahead of time and alerted them, he's coming, get ready and they'd watch him go across the hill and there was no one on the other side. >> that is part of the debate over the obama administration fast and furious. congressman elijah cummings, the house oversight committee asked chairman darin issa for a hearing with mukasey to deal the operation. details surfaced in the 2007 briefing paper that asked mukasey to persuade mexico to provide corruption-free cops to assist u.s. in stopping gun trafficking. >> the u.s. told mexico what was happening and fewer made it over the bor

are you aware of whether general mukasey reviewed the memo? >> i do not. >> i did not wanting out for anyone's attendance at the meeting. but i want to be clear about that. but with a that caveat are you currently able to say whether there were other high ranking doj officials who attended the november 7 meeting? >> i just don't know, senator, who attended the meeting. >> but it would not have been beyond the pale for other top officials to have been briefed on this, either in preparation or otherwise? >> it is certainly possible. i just don't know. >> another one -- do you have any knowledge whether deputy attorney general morford was briefed on the program or tactics? >> i don't know that, either. >> knowledge of any members of any other departments briefed on the program of the tactics? >> i don't know how extensively it was briefed. >> lanny davis, current criminal division head, was briefed -- testified he was briefed after it was closed, wide receiver was closed in 2010 did you know if his predecessor fischer was similarly briefed? >> i

if this was such an important program, gun walking generally, they had to brief mukasey when he came into office, how applausibles that eric holder didn't know about these various programs, including fast and furious, which seems to have been a stepped-up effort for as long as he contends to be in the dark. it doesn't add up. >> steve makes a good point. it's obvious they were trying to reach beyond individual smugglers, to break up smalling rings, and that would have happened in the bush administration, and some of the details document that. even though they were saying to mukasey this initial effort reasonable has not worked, we want to take another stab at it f it was -- if it was a tried -- maybe not true, but if they had done this before, they wanted to continue to do it again, it is hard to believe that the attorney general would not know about this kind of a program. >> bret: charles? >> i agree. i mean, it relieves anyone of the notion that this gun walking was invented by the obama administration, but it surely doesn't help eric holder, who said in ay that he'd only learned

also it's not michael mukasey, still practicing law, but health care isn't his thing.g these days according to his bio, white collar criminal defense. ah, naturally. so a former bush administration attorney general is going to argue against the health reform law at the supreme court when it comes up next year. it's not john ashcroft or alberto gonzales or michael mukasey. who else is there? oh, paul clement. you would be forgiven for not knowing paul clement was also our nation's attorney general under george w. bush because his tenure as attorney general lasted precisely one day. this was in 2007. he publicly tagged these temporary replacement for alberto gonzalez took the helm at 12:01 on monday and relinquishing it 24 hours later. the solicitor general under george w. bush but attorney general for one day. since leaving the bush white house altogether he's arguing more cases before the u.s. supreme court than any other lawyer in the last decade. if there is a conservative case going to the court, no matter what it is, this is probably the guy arguing it. that's why

bush chose this sympathetic venue to defend his appointment of michael mukasey his nomination for attorney general in jeopardy after he refused to declare waterboarding illegal senate leaders must move this nomination out of committee. bring it to the senate for floor. and confirm this good man founded in one thousand nine hundred seventy three a conservative think tank is bad to promote free enterprise limited government and for additional american values but critics say decisions made in here have less to do with democracy more to do with already corporate interests this is an organization that pushes a corporate agenda and a war profiteers agenda and that and a right wing religious agenda there is war propaganda comment out of our ears in this town and it's those institutions like the heritage foundation that are that are the force behind it author and activist david swanson says those agendas are often fought for by powerful decision makers in washington we live in an increasingly dangerous world danger to our country remains very we're real and that the terrorists are still determined

fact sniffy case i want to make something that's been widely misunderstood to the attorney general mukasey referred to what is known as a controlled delivery in the case called hernandez. the u.s. coordinated with the mexican law enforcement, which was supposed to be waiting on the other side of the border to interdict these weapons so this is a distinct from the serious operation procedure in which no effort was made to work with mexico. first question your justice department stood by its february 4th denial even after recent the first set of documents that showed otherwise. it's a question for you, attorney general holder, you said it and you were relying on others to correct the misstatements in the february 4th letter mr. brewer himself at minted first hand that those misstatements were false at the time that they were made. shouldn't he then have notified either you and the congress that time? >> that's one of the things that he admitted and in the testimony he said he made a mistake that god brought to my attention the fact of his prior knowledge. he admits that he made a mistake in

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attorney general mukasey, kevin o'connor who happens to be a former united states attorney in connecticut, and others in the department now. there's no evidence before us here that they knew or participate in any wrongdoing, is there? >> that was, i hope my cousin was clear. i felt -- >> and it has been, thank you. and also there's an ongoing investigation which eventually we'll will disclose disclose whether or not and who knew about what was going on. and i want to thank you for being so candid and straightforward on that point. i want to join my colleague, senator coons, and expressing my determination that there should be more assistance insufficient support for our police on the streets of connecticut, in our neighborhoods, as well as firefighters and other personal that i would regard as law enforcement, which i really in more than once in the cops on the beat to protect a day in and day out, despite the very excellent performance of the fbi. fbi. they are the ones who do the bulk of law enforcement for our nation. and i appreciate and thank you for your support. and i think perhaps