they'll pack -- they'll get on every single slice. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're expecting a vote in the house of representatives. the house oversight committee at any moment now on whether to hold the attorney general of the united states, eric holder, in contempt of congress. at issue, his refusal to turn over documents about the botched gun-running sting operation called fast and furious. the republican-led panel going forward even after president obama today invoked executive privilege claiming the release of the documents would have in his words, significant damaging consequences. >> the attorney general has refused to cooperate offering to provide subpoenaed documents only if the committee agrees in advance to close the investigation. no investigator would ever agree to that. >> the likes of the committee chairman. he will call the role call momentarily. want to know if senior justice officials knew if the fast and furious program was flawed. federal agents lost track of more than 1,000 firearms circulated along the southwest border in a sting targeting the mexican drug cartels. but their investigation has become something much bigger. our congressional correspondent, kate baldwin, is up on capitol hill. she's joining us right now. kate, this is emerging as a full-scale constitutional battle. >> you absolutely took the words out of my mouth, wolf. we remind viewers we are watching this committee still debating and moving closer and closer towards this anticipated vote to hold the attorney gener general. we are watching this. it's been a months long showdown turned into a full-scale political and constitutional battle over this botched operation fast and furious. this fight has now become even more dramatic that president obama himself has stepped into it asserting executive privilege over at least some of the documents that the committee and the republican chairman of this committee have been requesting as part of their own investigation. once the president took that step, you can be sure that republicans pounced on that -- the spokesman for house speaker john boehner in a statement raising questions now that the white house itself is involved in a "cover-up" or even lying to this statement. still, republicans on this committee are moving towards this vote. this after a marathon day of hearings on the matter. just listen here to a little bit of the debate, wolf, unusually caustic and bitter even for this partisan congress. >> it shouldn't be a political witch hunt against the attorney general of our country and our president in an election year. i must say, mr. chairman, i am offended personally by your calling the attorney general a liar. >> this is not about eric holder. it is about the department of justice and justice in the united states of america. have the guts -- i hope we have the guts and the perseverance to get to the bottom of this. we have nearly 2,000 weapons purposely -- purposely given to drug cartels. we have hundreds of dead people in mexico. we have a dead united states border patrol agent. and we have a government that's withholding information so that we cannot only get to the bottom of it but so that we can fix it and make sure it never ever happens again. >> what this comes down to is documents. the committee has been asking for documents in a specific period of time relating to this fast and furious investigation. they want to know what department of justice officials knew, who knew what when. the department says they have provided a lot of information, enough information, and they now -- now that the president has stepped in says that some of the documents they are looking for have executive privilege and will not be handed over, will be withheld. this hearing, wolf, has been going on since 10:00 this morning. republicans are the majority on the committee. they have the votes whenever they move towards that vote, wolf. >> so there should be no doubt that in this committee the republicans -- i assume all the republicans will vote to hold the attorney general in contempt. the democrats will vote against it. but the republicans, as you point out, have the majority. so presumably it will move forward, is that right? >> presumably, that is how exactly things will move forward. even if you just listen to some of the debate today, it was absolutely along partisan lines. one side saying the department of justice is stone walling. the other side saying this is a political witch hunt on the part of republicans. going forward though, wolf, it becomes a little bit more unclear. that full house of representatives would need to vote on this citation. that could happen as early as next week is what we are hearing. after that, it's unclear where it would go. it would likely go to the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia, but it's unlikely the justice department would enforce such a citation on one of its own especially if it's in dispute by the attorney general himself. and the element of the president asserting this executive privilege brings a whole new element to all of this. so it seems almost impossible for the president or attorney general could be prosecuted for withholding documents that are protected under executive privilege, wolf. >> kate, you'll let us know when that role call takes place. >> absolutely. >> let's dig deeper with our senior analyst, jeffrey tubin, joining us from new york. what does this mean, precisely, if in fact the committee and full households eric holder in contempt of congress? >> what it means in practical terms is that this will go to court. the executive branch are in conflict. when that happens, the judicial branch, the third branch, has to settle it. this will go probably in the next month or so to a district court, to the district court of columbia of appeals and then to the u.s. supreme court. >> we just heard kate say the u.s. attorney for the district of columbia who was named via president, he would be put in charge if in fact there were to become an investigation? is that what your understanding would be? >> my understanding is that before that point it will go to court. these sorts of disputes between the executive branch and the legislative branch have happened in all recent administrations. there have been these kind of fights in the clinton administration, in the last george bush administration. and they have always wound up in court. and what usually happens is what always happens in court, things get delayed. it takes a long time to litigate these questions. they're complicated. it's not simple to resolve them. and based on the fact that we are now in june of an election year, based on how these usually work, i don't see any resolution before the election. so i think there will be a flurry of activity in the next couple of days, perhaps the next couple of weeks. but then it's going to wind up in court. and it really won't be resolved, i don't think, until after the election. >> let's take a look. i want to put up on the screen exactly how many times at least in recent history a president of the united states has exerted executive privilege. president obama now one, this is the first time. president george w. bush, six times, president clinton, 14 times. p george h.w. bush, one time. ronld reagan did it three times. should we conclude as some of the president's critics, the attorney general's critics are suggesting right now that the administration has something to hide. that's why they're not sharing all these documents with this committee? >> no. by no means. these are constitutional values in conflict. congress definitely has the right to oversight. it has the right to investigate the executive branch. but the courts have also held that the executive branch has the right to internal deliberations, that's the phrase the courts focus on, internal deliberations that cannot be disclosed to the legislative branch when it's investigating. the question in these cases is, are the documents at issue, do they reflect internal deliberations that the executive needs in order to reach good decisions. or is this simply a cover-up of information that congress is entitled to? and those are the kind of issues that the courts deal with. and it can often be difficult and tedious because that means the court, the judge, has to look at each document and say is this protected by executive privilege? that's not always a simple determination. it can be appealed. so i think, as usual when it comes to the legal system, this fast-moving process, at least today, will slow down considerably. >> jeffrey, don't go too far away because you see daryl. he's the chairman of the committee. he's going to be calling the role on this contempt vote. we expect fairly soon. we'll update our viewers as soon as we get more on that. jeffrey toobin, thanks very much. in our next hour, by the way, an in depth analysis of fast and furious, the botched sting operation. what exactly happened that has generated what is this dramatic development today? we'll explain all of that. that's coming up in our next hour. meanwhile, new satellite images suggest iran is trying to clean up a controversial military site before allowing any outside inspection. mary snow is monitoring that. some of the other top stories in "the situation room" right now. what's going on, mary? >> the images show heavy machinery tracks and earth displacement at the military complex. the international atomic energy agency suspects iran of conducting tests to develop knew leer weapons. the iaea is pressing for immediate access to the site, but iran has refused. jurors will hear closing arguments in the jerry sandusky trial tomorrow morning. the defense rested without calling sandusky to the stand, but jurors did hear from 29 defense witnesses in just over two days. the former defensive coordinator for penn state is accused of molesting ten boys over a 15-year period. he denies the charges. uganda is stepping up its battle against ho mo sexuality. the minister says the agencies are promoting gay rights and recruiting children. homosexuality is illegal in uganda and legislation is pending to create harsh penalties. closer to home, look at this street in duluth, minnesota. it looks more like a river with flood waters rushing past. police say as many as 50 homes had to be evacuated. the mayor declared a state of emergency as the city copes with another round of rain in the forecast. >> mary, thanks very much. older white men may be in mitt romney's corner, but that's not necessarily enough for him to win the white house. we're looking closer at his dilemma. and the fed chairman offers a bleak new assessment of american economic future in the months to come. what does it mean for your finances? 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>> hi, wolf. first of all a senior campaign -- senior obama campaign ad said they don't buy the 13-point lead. they don't believe that poll. they think the race is actually much tighter than that and will continue to be right up until election day. in fact, a number of senior obama campaign aides say -- told reporters today that they believe that in this close race that the president is going to win because he's ahead. of course they think he's fwoing to win, but it's because he's ahead with a number of key voting groups for them. we've talked about this. these are the groups among women, they say they continue to lead in the key battleground states, colorado, nevada, virginia. they also say they're ahead with latino voters and expect a bigger latino turnout or hoping for one this time. and still with the african-american block. the one big concern and they flagged this, is that mitt romney, they expect that he will raise $100 million this month in the next reporting month. and the president not going to match that. and they also think that taken together the republicans with mitt romney will raise all told more than $1 billion. and they're warning that on the democratic side they are not going to match that figure. now, remember, that's a turnaround because months ago, last year, we were saying we heard the obama campaign was going to raise a billion. now they're calling the romney side the billion-dollar campaign. >> hold on for a minute, jessica, because daryl, the chairman of the house oversight committee is now actually conducting the role call. i want to see what's going on. let's go to the committee. they're counting the votes right now. >> mr. mosh vote i, dr. gos sart, i. mr. lab dor votes i. mr. mian, i. mr. walsh votes i. mr. goud di votes i. many ross votes. mr. guinn ta votes i. mr. kelly. >> i. >> mr. kelly votes i. >> mr. cummings. >> votes no. >> norton votes no. mr. tyranny votes no. mr. clay votes no. mr. lynch. mr. lynch votes no. mr. cooper. >> no. >> mr. cooper votes no. >> mr. kwig kwigly. >> no. >> mr. kwigly votes no. mr. davis. >> no. >> mr. brayly votes no. mr. welch? mr. well 67 votes no. mr. murphy. >> no. >> miss spear. >> no. >> miss spear votes no. >> the clerk will report. >> 23 is, 17 nos. >> the is have it. and a contempt report is ordered reported to the house. without objection the staff shall be authorized to make necessary and technical corrections and conforming changes to the report. >> mr. chairman, file. >> file. >> yes. >> there you have it. a strict party line vote. 23 yais, 17 nos, the attorney general according to this house oversight committee role call should be held in contempt of the u.s. congress. kate bolduan is watching it up on capitol hill. jessica yellin's watching it from the white house. first to you, kate, i take it this is no great surprise spriz e strictly along party lines because of the fast and furious documents that the obama administration is refusing to share with this committee, they are holding the attorney general in contempt even though the president of the united states today in his first time since taking office has cited -- has exerted his executive privilege opportunity to explain why he's not sharing those documents. go ahead and give our viewers your analysis. >> and the chairman of the committee when he began the hearing and having just gotten the letter from the department of justice moments before regarding the assertion of executive privilege, the chairman of the committee made very clear that regardless of that assertion they were moving forward with this contempt vote. that began at 10:00 -- just after 10:00 this morning, wolf. and they have been debating almost every member of the committee having their say today. they went through amendments, none of them -- nothing significant has changed on this contempt. and 23 yays, 17 nos, that's strictly along party lines in this committee, republicans to democrats. this is not surprising with republicans having majority on this committee and house representatives they are moving forward, but a very significant step. this now moves to a full house vote we are told we can expect as early as next week. if this would be approved by the full house and the attorney general of the united states will be held in contempt of congress, that would be unprecedented, it would be historic to have the whole house vote to hold the attorney general of the united states in contempt. and that is something we'll be looking towards next week. >> it's a strict party line. it's no contest, obviously. >> exactly. >> the republicans have an overwhelming majority in the house of representatives. jessica yellin is at the white house. i assume between now and the full floor vote, administration officials, justice department officials, the president, vice president, the attorney general, try to work out some sort of deal with the house speaker and the leader. i don't know if that's going to happe