Justice Department

E-Mails Detail DOJ Concern Over ATF 'Gun Walking' Well Before 'Fast & Furious'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 31, 2011, 10:56PM

Chinese-made SKS rifle on counter at A & A Guns in Fairfax, Virginia.

A high-ranking Justice Department official was "stunned" when he learned in 2010 that agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed weapons to "walk" across the Mexican border during the Bush administration, according to recently disclosed documents.

Documents show that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein, a career federal prosecutor in a leadership position within the Obama DOJ's Criminal Division, and other officials worked to keep the attention of the press away from the Bush-era "gun walking" tactics long before the problems with Operation Fast and Furious went public.

"Been thinking more about 'Wide Receiver I'," Weinstein wrote in an email on April 12, 2010. "ATF HQ [headquarters] should/will be embarrassed that they let this many guys walk -- I'm stunned, based on what we've had to do to make sure not even a single operable weapon walked in [undercover] operations I've been involved in planning -- and there will be press about that."

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Fast And Furious

Eric Holder To Testify On Fast And Furious As Dems Call On Ex-ATF Director Melson

Ryan J. Reilly | October 28, 2011, 2:50PM

Attorney General Eric Holder is set to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on Dec. 8 about ATF's flawed Fast and Furious operation that let guns flow to Mexican drug cartels, a Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed to TPM.

Holder has agreed to a request from Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) to testify before the Judiciary Committee, which is chaired by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), Oversight Committee Ranking Member Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD) said in a statement.

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DOJ

DOJ: Issa's Theory That Gun Disappeared After Border Patrolman's Murder 'Maligns' FBI Agents

Ryan J. Reilly | October 17, 2011, 7:30PM

Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) said Sunday that he was worried about what he saw as certain inconsistencies in the investigation into the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and floated the theory that there was a third weapon at the scene. Federal officials say he didn't do his homework.

Two weapons linked to ATF's botched Fast and Furious operation (which allowed guns to "walk" into Mexico) had been found at the scene of Terry's death, but investigators haven't determined conclusively if one of those weapons killed him. It was Terry's murder that lead to complaints from ATF agents about the the bureau's anti-gun trafficking program.

"If weapon number one [which] appears to be missing were ballistically matched," Issa said on CBS "Face the Nation", "we would have an absolute rather than the inconsistency." From the interview:

Host Bob Schieffer: Are you suggesting that maybe that might be the gun, that evidence shows was the murder weapon, and for some reason the FBI has not disclosed that?

Chairman Issa: Well, we certainly want to know in some cases, as you know, there are investigations where there's materials that people feel are very sensitive.

Issa also added that the FBI "has a history in some cases of working with felons and criminals and hiding their other crimes."

A Justice Department spokeswoman said that Issa's false accusation "maligns the dedicated agents investigating the murder of Agent Terry" and "mischaracterizes evidence in an ongoing case."

"The FBI has made clear that reports of a third gun recovered from the perpetrators at the scene of Agent Terry's murder are false," Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said in a statement to reporters.

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ATF

Emails: Bush-Era Embassy, Prosecutor's Office Approved ATF 'Gun Walking' Tactic

Ryan J. Reilly | October 14, 2011, 5:00PM

As House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) continues to try to pin the flawed "gun walking" tactic employed in Operation Fast and Furious on the Obama administration, it's becoming increasingly clear that problems with ATF's Phoenix division date back at least into the Bush era.

TPM has obtained the documents relating to another Bush-era ATF operation (on top of Operation Wide Receiver) which deployed the "gun walking" tactic. The development was first reported by Pete Yost of the Associated Press.

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Darrell Issa

Despite Denials, Sources Say Darrell Issa Was Briefed On Details Of ATF's 'Fast And Furious'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 14, 2011, 9:15AM

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) said this week that he was "never" briefed about what was going on in Operation Fast and Furious and that ATF agents who ran an April 2010 briefing he attended "never mentioned 'Fast and Furious' by name."

That contradicts contemporaneous documents prepared for that meeting as well as the claims of officials familiar with the briefing, who say Fast and Furious was, in fact, discussed in detail. Still, Issa's office says staffers at the meeting don't recall Fast and Furious coming up and say they weren't given the briefing materials.

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Fast And Furious

DOJ: Issa's 'Recycled' Charges That Holder Lied About ATF's Fast And Furious Are 'Baseless'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 10, 2011, 3:19PM

The back-and-forth between House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa and Attorney General Eric Holder over Holder's knowledge of ATF's controversial Fast and Furious program continued Monday, with a Justice Department spokeswoman accusing Issa of "partisan showboating."

"These recycled allegations continue to be baseless, no matter how many times they are repeated," DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler told TPM in an email.

"From the start, the Attorney General took the concerns about certain tactics used in the Fast and Furious operation seriously, which is why the first steps he took were to ask the Inspector General to investigate the matter and to ensure agents and prosecutors knew such conduct violated Department of Justice policy and would not be tolerated," Schmaler said.

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Fast And Furious

Issa To Holder: Time 'To Come Clean' About Fast And Furious

Ryan J. Reilly | October 10, 2011, 1:50PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) sent a letter firing back at Attorney General Eric Holder, who had accused House Republicans of engaging in "political posturing" instead of trying to actually get to the bottom of what went wrong in ATF's Fast and Furious scandal.

"Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you," Issa wrote.

"At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt," he continued.

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Fast And Furious

Eric Holder Bashes GOP's 'Political Posturing' In ATF Fast And Furious Scandal

Ryan J. Reilly | October 7, 2011, 5:23PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter to Congress on Friday that the accusation that he lied about his knowledge of ATF's Fast and Furious program is irresponsible "political posturing."

Holder wrote that he could not "sit idly by" as Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) "suggests, as happened this week, that law enforcement and government employees who devote their lives to protecting our citizens be considered 'accessories to murder.'"

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ATF

ATF Didn't Consult White House On Emergency Request For Controversial Gun Rule

Ryan J. Reilly | October 6, 2011, 6:00AM

Here's some news for all the NRA members convinced that ATF's rifle reporting requirement in four border states is a diabolical plot by the Obama administration to crack down on the Second Amendment. ATF didn't consult the White House before they published an emergency request for a proposed rule requiring gun dealers in four border states to report bulk sales of semi-automatic weapons in the Federal Register.

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Operation Wide Receiver

Issa: We'll Get To The Bottom Of Bush's Gun Walking Program Too (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | October 5, 2011, 12:09PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) told Anderson Cooper on Tuesday that he'll "get to the bottom" of "Wide Receiver" -- the "gun walking" program that took place during the George W. Bush administration.

"What we do know about Wide Receiver somewhat is: very small amount of weapons, much more intensive following," Issa said. "But we will in fact get to the bottom of whether or not this practice might have began, in a smaller way, under the Bush watch. We're not putting it past any administration and giving anyone a pass."

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Eric Holder

DOJ: Holder Was 'Consistent And Truthful' About Fast And Furious

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2011, 6:30PM

Attorney General Eric Holder

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler issued this statement about the Republican allegation that Attorney General Eric Holder lied to Congress about his knowledge of the controversial ATF program known as Fast and Furious:

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Darrell Issa

Issa: Obama DOJ's Blame Bush Strategy In ATF Scandal 'Reeks Of Desperation'

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2011, 5:50PM

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) is trying to take the revelation that the Bush administration had a "gun walking" problem of its very own in stride.

"The committee has received some documents from the Justice Department about Operation Wide Receiver but Justice officials still have not made clear to committee investigators what did and did not take place in this operation," spokeswoman Becca Glover Watkins said in a statement to TPM.

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Eric Holder

'Operation Wide Receiver': The Bush Administration Had Its Very Own ATF 'Gun Walking' Scandal

Ryan J. Reilly | October 4, 2011, 3:50PM

Fmr. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and President George W. Bush

Updated: Oct. 4, 6:45PM

Know how Republicans have been blaming the Obama administration for a local ATF office's decision to let thousands of guns "walk" into Mexico? Turns out the Bush administration had a "gun walking" program of their very own.

Republicans on Tuesday called for a special prosecutor to look into whether Attorney General Eric Holder perjured himself during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee on ATF's Fast and Furious scandal.

Holder had testified on May 3 that he was "not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."

Documents have now emerged showing that the "Fast and Furious" program came up in the course of a couple of Holder's extensive weekly reports on ongoing developments in the Justice Department and its components in July 2010 and again in October 2010.

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