Is it me or did the Attorney General just give the GOP an opportunity to impeach him?

(Fox News) — For the first time, documents appear to show Attorney General Eric Holder was made aware of the Operation Fast and Furious earlier than he claimed — up to nine months earlier.

The documents seem to contradict what Holder told a House Judiciary Committee on May 3, when he said he could not recall the exact date, but he’d “probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”

However, in a July 2010 memo, Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder straw buyers in the Operation Fast and Furious case “are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels.”

Also, on Oct.18, 2010, one of Holder’s chief deputies, Lanny Breuer, chief of the department’s Criminal Division, told Holder in a memo that prosecutors were ready to issue indictments in Operation Fast and Furious.

Documents also show, contrary to earlier reports, the Justice Department was aware that ATF agents under the department’s direction were involved in the controversial practice known as “gun walking” — allowing illicit gun sales to proceed to track the traffickers to higher-ups. The department has said it did not allow guns to “walk.”

When agents “let guns walk,” they stop surveillance and allow criminals to transfer weapons to others. In this case, that meant allowing the guns to cross the border into Mexico. It is a highly controversial practice agents typically are taught not to do.

Update: Via Fox News’ Todd Starnes.

Update II: Sh*t is about to hit the fan.

(The Hill) — House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) on Tuesday called for President Obama to appoint a special counsel to investigate whether Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress.

New documents released this week show that Holder was notified by senior Justice Department officials in multiple memos last year about the controversial Fast and Furious gun tracking operation.

Holder testified before Smith’s committee in May that he had not been aware of the botched gun tracking operation, which may have contributed to the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, until recently.

Smith said the contradictions between the memos and Holder’s comments was cause for Obama to request a special counsel to investigate the matter.