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 WASHINGTON—The Justice Department said Friday its prosecutors won't pursue criminal charges against their boss, Attorney General Eric Holder, over his refusal to turn over documents sought by House Republicans. 
 
 The move was an expected response to a vote in the Republican-controlled House Thursday citing Mr. Holder with contempt of Congress. Under the law, it is the responsibility of the U.S. attorney for ... ||||| In this file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks to reporters following his meeting on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 19, 2012. (Susan Walsh/AP) 
 
 The Justice Department has told House leaders that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.’s decision to withhold certain documents about a flawed gun operation from Congress is not a crime and he will not be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. 
 
 Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole explained the decision, which was expected, in a letter to House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). The letter was released publicly Friday, just over a week after President Obama invoked executive privilege to withhold the documents. 
 
 In his letter, Cole said the decision not to prosecute Holder conforms to long-standing Justice Department practice in both Democratic and Republican administrations. 
 
 In May 1984, Theodore B. Olson, then assistant attorney general, wrote that U.S. attorneys are not required to refer congressional contempt charges to a grand jury or prosecute an executive branch official “who carries out the President’s instruction to invoke the President’s claim of executive privilege before a committee.” 
 
 In July 2007 and February 2008, Attorney General Michael Mukasey cited the Olson analysis in letters to House Democratic leaders, informing them that Justice would decline to press charges against White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and White House counsel Harriet E. Miers, who were held in contempt after failing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. 
 
 “Consistent with this uniform position and practice, the Department has determined that the Attorney General’s response to this subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform does not constitute a crime, and therefore the Department will not bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any other action to prosecute the Attorney General,” Cole wrote. 
 
 On Thursday, Holder became the first attorney general to be held in contempt of Congress after he withheld internal deliberative documents that Republican lawmakers demanded as part of an investigation into the “Fast and Furious” gunrunning operation. 
 
 The Justice Department’s decision concerns only criminal action, so the House can still pursue civil litigation against Holder. On Thursday, the House voted to authorize civil action, which paves the way for a federal court challenge to Obama’s decision to invoke executive privilege. 
 
 Republicans dismissed Cole’s decision and said the U.S. attorney for the District — who technically has the authority to prosecute Holder — should be able to do so, noting that he is already leading an investigation into the possible leak of classified information by Obama administration officials to reporters. 
 
 “If he’s neutral enough to independently look for leaks from the administration and not be conflicted, then he has to be equally independent in weighing the statute” approved by the House, said House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who is leading the “Fast and Furious” investigation. 
 
 Staff writer Ed O’Keefe contributed to this report. ||||| The Justice Department declared Friday that Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to withhold information about a bungled gun-tracking operation from Congress does not constitute a crime and he won't be prosecuted for contempt of Congress. 
 
 House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Md., flanked by House Assistant Minority Leader James Clyburn of S.C., left, and Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., center, holds hands with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., next to Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., right, as House Democrats leave the Capitol in protest of a House vote to... (Associated Press) 
 
 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 28, 2012, after members of Congress walked off the House floor in protest of a contempt of Congress vote... (Associated Press) 
 
 FILE - In this June 12, 2012 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. In email exchanges with subordinates in February and March 2011, Attorney General Eric Holder... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Md., Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, and Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-NY, walk out of the Capitol, arm-in-arm, as members of the Congressional... (Associated Press) 
 
 From left, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Md., Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Rep, Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, and many... (Associated Press) 
 
 The House voted Thursday afternoon to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt for refusing to turn over the documents. President Barack Obama invoked his executive privilege authority and ordered Holder not to turn over materials about executive branch deliberations and internal recommendations. 
 
 In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner, the department said that it will not bring the congressional contempt citation against Holder to a federal grand jury and that it will take no other action to prosecute the attorney general. Dated Thursday, the letter was released Friday. 
 
 Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the decision is in line with long-standing Justice Department practice across administrations of both political parties. 
 
 "We will not prosecute an executive branch official under the contempt of Congress statute for withholding subpoenaed documents pursuant to a presidential assertion of executive privilege," Cole wrote. 
 
 In its letter, the department relied in large part on a Justice Department legal opinion crafted during Republican Ronald Reagan's presidency. 
 
 Frederick Hill, the spokesman for Rep. Darrell Issa, said it is regrettable that "the political leadership of the Justice Department" is taking that position. Issa, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman, is leading the effort to get the material related to Operation Fast and Furious. 
 
 Although the House voted Thursday to find Holder in criminal and civil contempt, Republicans probably are still a long way from obtaining documents they want for their inquiry into Operation Fast and Furious, a flawed gun-tracking investigation focused on Phoenix-area gun shops by Justice's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. 
 
 The criminal path is now closed and the civil route through the courts would not be resolved anytime soon. 
 
 "This is pure politics," White House spokesman Jay Carney said. 
 
 "Remarkably the chairman of the committee involved here has asserted that he has no evidence that the attorney general knew of Operation Fast and Furious or did anything but take the right action when he learned of it. 
 
 "No evidence, so if you have no evidence as he has stated now about the White House and the attorney general, what else could this be but politics?" 
 
 More than 100 Democrats walked out of the House chamber to boycott the first of two contempt votes, saying Republicans were more interested in shameful election-year politics than documents. 
 
 Republicans demanded the documents for an ongoing investigation, but their arguments focused more on the need for closure for the family of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Two guns identified by the Fast and Furious tracking operation were found near his body after a shootout in Arizona. 
 
 Democrats promised closure as well, but said a less-partisan Republican investigation was the only way to get it. 
 
 Adding to the emotion of the day, the family of the slain agent issued a statement backing the Republicans. 
 
 "The Terry family takes no pleasure in the contempt vote against Attorney General Eric Holder. Such a vote should not have been necessary. The Justice Department should have released the documents related to Fast and Furious months ago," the statement said. 
 
 The contempt votes happened on the day that Obama's health care law survived in the Supreme Court, prompting some Democrats to speculate that the votes were scheduled to be overwhelmed by news stories about the ruling. 
 
 About five hours after the court ruled, with news sites flooded with information about the health care ruling, the House voted 255-67 to declare Holder in criminal contempt. 
 
 A second vote of 258-95 held Holder in civil contempt and authorized the House to file a lawsuit. 
 
 In past cases, courts have been reluctant to settle disputes between the executive and legislative branches of government. 
 
 The issue became more complicated when Obama invoked a broad form of executive privilege, a legal doctrine designed to keep private certain communications of executive branch agencies. 
 
 Issa's committee will consult with the House counsel's office about a court challenge to the administration's decision not to cooperate, spokesman Frederick Hill said. 
 
 The documents were written after Fast and Furious was shut down. The subpoena covered a 10-month period from February 2011, as the Justice Department expressed growing concern that the Fast and Furious operation had employed a risky investigative tactic known as "gun-walking." In early December 2011, the department finally acknowledged that the initial denial of gun-walking was in error. 
 
 Republicans said the contempt citations were necessary because Holder refused to hand over documents that could explain why the Obama administration took 10 months to acknowledge the gun-walking. 
 
 In Fast and Furious, ATF agents abandoned the agency's usual practice of intercepting all weapons they believed to be illicitly purchased, often as soon as they were taken out of gun shops. Instead, the goal of the tactic known as "gun-walking" was to track such weapons to high-level arms traffickers, who had long eluded prosecution, and to dismantle their networks. 
 
 Gun-walking long has been barred by Justice Department policy, but federal agents in Arizona experimented with it in at least two investigations during the George W. Bush administration before Operation Fast and Furious. These experiments came as the department was under widespread criticism that the old policy of arresting every suspected low-level "straw purchaser" was failing to stop tens of thousands of guns from reaching Mexico, more than 68,000 in the last five years. A straw purchaser conceals that he is buying guns for others. 
 
 Fast and Furious identified more than 2,000 weapons suspected of being illicitly purchased. But agents lost track of many of the guns. Some 1,400 of them have yet to be recovered. ||||| AP Photo Close 
 
 White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday that there is a longstanding precedent against prosecuting Attorney General Eric Holder for contempt — despite a recommendation from Congress. 
 
 "It is an established principle, dating back to the administration of President Ronald Reagan, that the Justice Department does not pursue prosecution in a contempt case when the President has asserted executive privilege," Carney told reporters. 
 
 "The assertion of executive privilege makes the contempt matter moot, if you will. I mean, I’m not a lawyer, so I’m probably not using quite the precise language. But it is my understanding, and I would refer you to the Justice Department, that dating back to the administration of President Reagan that prosecutions will not take place under this -- in this circumstance," Carney said. 
 
 The Republican-controlled House cited Holder for contempt Thursday for failure to turn over documents related to a gunrunning operation within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The White House declared the same documents protected under the doctrine of executive privilege earlier this month. Seventeen Democrats crossed the aisle to vote with the GOP, in the first instance of a sitting cabinet member being handed a contempt citation. 
 
 That citation is now in the hands of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald Machen — a Justice Department employee appointed by President Obama who answers to Holder. 
 
 "Let’s just be clear, as I know all of you recognize, that this is pure politics -- pure politics," Carney said, referring to what he called extensive cooperation between the DOJ and Republicans on Capitol Hill. 
 
 UPDATE: In a letter to House Speaker John Boehner's office, the Department of Justice confirms they will not prosecute.
– The House may think Eric Holder is criminally contempt, but the Justice Department thinks the House can go fly a kite. The department informed John Boehner today that it won't prosecute its boss on the contempt charges, reports the Washington Post. The letter was drafted yesterday, the same day the House voted against Holder. The attorney general is in the clear, the letter asserts, because President Obama invoked executive privilege in the spat over documents related to the Fast and Furious case. The matter isn't over, though. The Justice Department action closes the criminal contempt case, but the House also cited Holder for civil contempt, notes AP. That means Darrell Issa and his committee can still go to court to try to get the documents they want, a legal fight that could take years to resolve, notes the Wall Street Journal.