It is a crime to obstruct a congressional investigation, but this form of criminality may well be part of the Department of Veterans Affairs response to the falsified waiting list scandal. Patrick Hawley of the Daily Caller reports:

Officials in the Obama administration’s Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) appear to have illegally instructed VA employees to stonewall a congressional investigation into the department’s scandals, according to House Committee on Veterans Affairs chairman Rep. Jeff Miller.

“There is a troubling pattern of incidents in which VA officials appear to have been instructed to stonewall, or have possibly tried to mislead Congress,” Miller wrote in a letter Monday to Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson, which CC’ed Attorney General Eric Holder and which was obtained by The Daily Caller. “As you know, interfering with Congress’ constitutionally mandated oversight responsibility is not just wrong, it is against the law.”

Miller’s letter cited three instances of possible criminal conduct:

“…Veterans Integrated Service Network 4 Director Gary Devansky, on behalf of Veterans Heath Administration Director of Network Support Vivieca Wright, instructed VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System Director and Chief Executive Officer Terry Gerigk Wolf not to speak with members of Congress about a list of some 700 veterans waiting for VA appointments,” Miller wrote.

“In an internal VA email, Acting Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management Janet Murphy directed dozens of high-level VA officials not to talk to VA stakeholders, including members of local congressional delegations,” Miller wrote.

“According to Rep. Martha Roby, Central Alabama Veterans Health Care System Director James Talton falsely told her that employees responsible for wait time manipulation had been terminated when, in fact, recent reports show that no one has been fired,” Miller wrote.

“The above events call into question whether the perpetrators have violated federal law. Some examples of particular U.S. Code sections that could have been violated include falsification, obstruction, and impeding Congress,” Miller wrote, highlighting three statues — Title 18 Section 1001, Title 18, Section 1505, Title 5 Section 7211 — pertaining to falsification, obstruction, and impeding Congress.

The great sleeper issue that should be front and center in the 2016 presidential race is the arrogant, out-of-control federal bureaucracy that has turned into a feudal ruling class, exploiting the rest of us for its own benefit and covering up its abuses. The Democrats have become the Party of Government, aligning itself with, and receiving enormous campaign donations from, government employees and their unions.  

In the case of the VA, subpoenas should be issued investigating the details of this possible stonewall. It is time to air out the actions of the bureaucracy. Eric Holder’s Justice Department may well decline to prosecute, but that neglect of duty could become a potent issue, for the public including many Democrats, is appalled at what our veterans must endure at the hands of a callous bureaucracy.

Should the GOP enjoy majorities in both houses of Congress following the elections this fall, Holder, if he stays in office, could well be the subject of an impeachment should he decline to prosecute law-breakers in the VA and elsewhere in the bureaucracy.  

It is time to start jailing rogue bureaucrats, to "encourage the others," in Napoleon's immortal phrase