Eric Holder Barack ObamaIn a breaking new development this morning, President Barack Obama has granted a last-minute request from Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents.

The move comes just as the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to meet this morning to vote on a contempt resolution against Holder.

Should the vote go ahead as planned, Republicans will likely have sufficient votes on committee to pass the resolution. Holder wouldn’t be considered held in contempt of Congress, though, unless the full House approves the measure.

The 11th-hour effort by Holder and Obama to seal certain documents only complicates the battle over the ill-fated anti-gunrunning operation between the legislative and executive branches of the government.

After Holder made the request on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) today informing him that the request had been granted.

“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.”

The president’s ruling covers documents from February of last year and afterward examining how Justice officials learned of the Fast and Furious investigation.

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

More in the video below.

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