Reports: Holder contempt vote to be held Thursday

ByABC News
June 25, 2012, 7:53 PM

— -- Sources tell the Washington Post and CNN that the U.S. House has scheduled a vote for Thursday on whether to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress. Holder is under fire over for failing to turn over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, the failed gunwalking program that's under investigation.

Last week, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted 23 to 17 along party lines to hold Holder in contempt, despite President Barack Obama's invocation, for the first time in his presidency, of executive privilege to withhold the documents.

Both the Washington Post and CNN report that if the House cites Holder for contempt, it will be the first time in history that a U.S. attorney general is held in contempt of Congress.

A vote on Thursday would make for a busy day in Washington: It would be the same day that the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Obama's health care law.

Yahoo News reporters Rachel Rose Hartman and Olivier Knox contributed reporting.