- The Washington Times - Friday, October 24, 2014

Documents obtained from a government watchdog on the “Fast and Furious” debacle reveal the feds have gone to such lengths to maintain privacy on the gun-running program that even Attorney General Eric Holder’s wife has been granted executive privilege status.

Judicial Watch found that email correspondence between Mr. Holder and his wife, Sharon, and between Mr. Holder and his mother, are being withheld “under an extraordinary claim of executive privilege as well as a dubious claim of deliberative process privilege under the Freedom of Information Act,” Newsmax reported.

“There are at least 20 emails, other communications, but principally emails between Holder and his spouse, Sharon Malone … a medical doctor here in [Washington] D.C., and between Holder and his mother, who is now deceased but at the time a couple years back, she was still alive,” Chris Farrell, the director of research and investigations at Judicial Watch, said during an interview on Newsmax TV.

It’s not clear what the emails have to do with “Fast and Furious,” the federal gun-running scandal that left left U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry dead. But the fact they’ve been given executive privilege status is curious and suspicious, Mr. Farrell said.

“I can’t imaging what Dr. Malone or his mother has anything to do with Fast and Furious,” Mr. Farrell said, Newsmax reported. “Somebody I know has opined that they think that they’re maybe cover emails for people in the White House. … Their claim is executive privilege. They need to document or explain that. They just can’t make a blanket statement.”

• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.

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