Oops! Documents just unearthed show that the attorney general of the United States lied to Congress about when he first knew of the scandalous Operation Fast and Furious. Misstatements of fact by senior government officials under oath can be treated very severely. Remember Scooter Libby? He recalled the date of a meeting to the FBI differently than did others, and was convicted of a felony.

Doug Ross of Director Blue has an excellent summary, under the catchy title "Holder Lied, People Died." Unlike the case of Scooter Libby, over which the Left had fits, 2 federal agents and at least 200 Mexicans have been killed by guns obtained by drug gangs under the Fast and Furious program.

Unfortunately for Holder, CBS News' Sharyl Atkkisson has been doggedly pursuing the case and has unearthed documents that prove Holder lied under oath:

...internal Justice Department documents show that at least ten months before that hearing, Holder began receiving frequent memos discussing Fast and Furious...

The documents came from the head of the National Drug Intelligence Center and Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer... the new documents leave no doubt that high level Justice officials knew guns were being "walked."

Two Justice Department officials mulled it over in an email exchange Oct. 18, 2010. "It's a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked but is a significant set of prosecutions," says Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division. Deputy Chief of the National Gang Unit James Trusty replies "I'm not sure how much grief we get for 'guns walking.' It may be more like, "Finally they're going after people who sent guns down there."

The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.

No doubt, Holder will claim he didn't read the memos in question. In other words, he will claim incompetence.

Update: I was wrong. Holder is claiming he misunderstood the question:

The Justice Department told CBS News that the officials in those emails were talking about a different case started before Eric Holder became Attorney General. And tonight they tell CBS News, Holder misunderstood that question from the committee - he did know about Fast and Furious - just not the details.