President Obama has asserted executive privilege over the Fast and Furious documents Rep. Darrell Issa has been demanding from Attorney General Eric Holder:

President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead Wednesday morning with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.

If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.

The move by Holder and Obama to lock down some requested documents only complicates the fight over the botched anti-gunrunning operation between the legislative and executive branches.

After Holder made the request to Obama via letter on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Wednesday informing him that the president has granted the request.

“We regret that we have arrived at this point, after the many steps we have taken to address the committee’s concerns and to accommodate the committee’s legitimate oversight interests regarding Operation Fast and Furious,” Cole wrote. “Although we are deeply disappointed that the committee appears intent on proceeding with a contempt vote, the department remains willing to work with the committee to reach a mutually satisfactory resolution of the outstanding issues.”

Obama’s decision pertains to documents from February 2011 and afterward examining how Justice officials learned about the Fast and Furious probe.

Holder, in his letter to Obama, said those documents pertain to the “deliberative process” on how to respond to congressional and media inquiries.

Please.

Obama is doing his best to cover up the mess his administration has made.

Plus this:

Good point by @baseballcrank.If Holder is truthful that F&F was a low level operation, why the need for executive privilege?

— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) June 20, 2012

If this really didn’t involve the higher reaches of government, why is executive privilege necessary?

Can you imagine if George Bush tried something like this?

Yes you can:

If Obama was trying to keep this thing under control, I think he is more out of touch than we know. This just throws gasoline on a huge fire.