Holder, Issa To Go Face To Face Before Fast and Furious Contempt Vote

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will meet with House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) Tuesday evening.

Issa's website confirmed that the meeting will take place at 5 p.m. in the U.S. Capitol Building without the House GOP leadership. The Justice Department requested that Rep. Elijah Cummings and Sen. Patrick Leahy be permitted to attend and teh request has been granted.

Currently, DOJ has not delivered or shown the Committee any of the documents it has said it is prepared to produce, a statement on Issa's website read.

Congressional Republicans are expected to vote Wednesday to hold Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to hand over requested documents in the ongoing Fast and Furious gun-walking operation. Reports were that 31 Democrats were expected to side with the Republicans on the matter.

It is not clear if they will actually produce these documents to the Committee before the Wednesday vote to facilitate a postponement, the statement read. Possibility of postponement is and always has been about whether DOJ produces a described subset of documents before Wednesday's vote.

Issa has said the requested documents are critical and added that Holder failed to meet his legal obligation detailed in an Oct. 12 subpoena.

The Fast and Furious federal operation allowed weapons from the United States to move through the hand of suspected smugglers in Mexico. The operation was run by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The intent was to trace the weapons back to the leaders in the Mexican drug cartels, but law enforcement officials lost track of hundreds of weapons. Additionally, many of the guns were linked to crimes and the fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.