Fast And Furious

It Wasn't Just The Government Giving Guns To Mexican Drug Cartels

Ryan J. Reilly | April 27, 2012, 12:57PM

Over 66 percent of guns recovered at crime scenes in Mexico that officials asked the U.S. government to trace were sourced to the United States, according to data released Thursday by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).

Conservatives have asserted that ATF's botched Fast and Furious operation -- in which U.S. gun dealers were told to sell large numbers of weapons to individuals they believed were "straw purchasers" for Mexican drug cartels -- was launched by the Obama administration in an effort to justify gun control measures. But the trace data showed that the number of weapons traced to the U.S. peaked before he even took office.

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Fast And Furious

Obama Has 'Full Confidence' In Eric Holder Ahead Of 'Fast And Furious' Hearing

Ryan J. Reilly | December 8, 2011, 1:05AM

While House Republicans gear up to grill Attorney General Eric Holder about what-he-knew-when about ATF's botched Operation Fast and Furious at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday, the White House is signaling they're standing by the nation's top law enforcement officer.

"As the President has made clear, he believes Eric Holder is an excellent Attorney General who has his full confidence," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said in a statement to TPM on Wednesday.

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Fast And Furious

Emails Show DOJ Trusted ATF Denials Of Fast And Furious 'Gun Walking' Allegations

Ryan J. Reilly | December 5, 2011, 3:06PM

Attorney General Eric Holder testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee in a hearing examining the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms' botched gun-walking operation, Fast and Furious. November, 8, 2011.

It was early 2011. Reports that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had let guns "walk" across the border to Mexico were only just starting to emerge. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to to the Justice Department on Jan. 27 asking if an assault rifle bought by a suspected "straw purchaser" during an ATF-authorized transaction with a firearms dealer was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

If contemporaneous emails sent by Justice Department officials are any indication, they didn't have any clue what Grassley was talking about. And when officials in the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona and at ATF headquarters assured them gun walking wasn't going on, they took them at their word and adopted that false position as the official stance of the Justice Department.

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Fast And Furious

Ex U.S. Attorney Called Grassley's Staff 'Stooges For The Gun Lobby' For Fast And Furious Probe

Ryan J. Reilly | December 2, 2011, 3:48PM

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

A former U.S. Attorney who resigned in the wake of ATF's botched operation Fast and Furious called Sen. Chuck Grassley's staff "willing stooges for the Gun Lobby" when the Senator started investigating the issue in early 2011, according to emails DOJ sent up to congressional investigators and released to news organizations, including TPM, on Friday afternoon.

"I am so personally outraged by Senator Grassley's falsehoods," former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke wrote in an email regarding the allegation that a weapon connected to the ATF operation was found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. "It is one of the lowest acts I have ever seen in politics."

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Chuck Grassley

Giffords Shooting Survivors Slam Grassley's 'Disregard' For Gun Violence Victims

Ryan J. Reilly | November 16, 2011, 5:13PM

Tucson, Arizona Shooting Witness Patricia Maisch And Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley

Eleven survivors and family members of victims of the January 2011 shooting in Arizona that nearly killed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D) are criticizing Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) for what they say was a "dismissive and political response" to Tucson shooting survivor Patricia Maisch's testimony in support of legislation which would close holes in the gun background check system.

In a letter sent to Grassley on Wednesday and obtained by TPM, Retired Colonel Bill Badger, Nancy Bowman, Carol Dorushka, Kenneth Dorushka, Randy Gardner, John Maisch, Patricia Maisch, Angela Robbinson, Faith Salzgeber, Foger Salzgeber and Mavy Stoddard write of their "profound disappointment" with Grassley's "obvious disregard for the gun violence survivors in the room" as well as his "apparent ignorance of the deadly serious issue we came to discuss with you."

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Chuck Grassley

Awkward: Grassley Blows Lid On Internal DOJ Probe Into Fast And Furious Leaks

Ryan J. Reilly | November 8, 2011, 11:30AM

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Updated: Nov. 8, 1:12PM

Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed on Tuesday that the Justice Department's internal investigators were looking into "a couple of leaks" related to ATF's flawed Operation Fast and Furious.

But he was pretty upset that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made the probe public in the first place.

In a hearing on Tuesday, Grassley related a private conversation that he had with Holder about a document that was supposed to be private that the Justice Department provided to the press. The name of the ATF agent was not deleted from the document, which Grassley said was a violation of the Privacy Act.

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FOIA

Justice Department Pulls Proposal Allowing Government To Lie About FOIA Requests

Ryan J. Reilly | November 3, 2011, 3:50PM

Updated: Nov. 3, 4:05PM

The Justice Department is withdrawing a proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act which would have allowed federal agencies to say that certain law-enforcement and national security documents didn't exist, even when they do.

"If the proposed regulations can be improved [in terms of transparency], we will work to improve them," the Justice Department explained in a letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA). "We believe that Section 16.6(f)(2) of the proposed regulations fall short by those measures, and we will not include that provision when the Department issues final regulations."

The regulation in question would have instructed agencies to "respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist." Agencies will still continue using the phrase "there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request" when records in question are exempt from FOIA, as spelled out in a 1987 memo issued by Attorney General Ed Meese.

"When a citizen makes a request pursuant to the FOIA, either implicit or explicit in the request is that it seeks records that are subject to the FOIA; where the only records that exist are not subject to the FOIA, the statement that 'there exist no records responsive to your FOIA request' is wholly accurate," the letter said.

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Fast And Furious

DOJ's Breuer: I Shouldn't Have Just Trusted ATF To Stop 'Gun Walking' (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | November 1, 2011, 11:55AM

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) questioned Justice Department official Lanny Breuer at a hearing on Tuesday about Attorney General Eric Holder's knowledge of ATF's flawed Operation Fast and Furious, the day after Breuer apologized for not connecting the "gun walking" tactics that took place during a Bush-era ATF operation to the more recent anti-gun trafficking operation.

Breuer said during his testimony that he trusted officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to make sure that agents weren't allowing guns to "walk" across the Mexican border, as they learned happened back in 2006 and 2007 during Operation Wide Receiver.

"At the time, I thought that dealing with the leadership of ATF was sufficient and reasonable, and frankly given the amount of work I do, at the time I thought that was the appropriate way of dealing with it," Breuer said. "I thought we had dealt with it by talking to the ATF leadership."

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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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Chuck Grassley

Help 'Muffin Man' Chuck Grassley Save Taxpayers Some Cash

Ryan J. Reilly | September 27, 2011, 12:25PM

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was very, very upset -- and even called for someone to lose their job -- when he learned last week that the Justice Department was accused of paying $16 per muffin at a 2009 legal conference in D.C. (though that number is disputed).

Grassley continued pressing the issue on Monday, writing a letter to Office of Management and Budget Director Jacob Lew asking for more information on his review of conference expenditures.

Regardless of whether DOJ really paid $16 for a muffin -- and it seems almost certain they didn't -- what's nice about federal agencies is that they've got inspector generals to try to keep their actions and their spending in line.

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Chuck Grassley

Grassley Wants To See 'Heads Roll' Over $16 Muffins (VIDEO)

Ryan J. Reilly | September 22, 2011, 3:30PM

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA)

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) isn't letting up on the fact that the Justice Department's Inspector General calculated that the department spent $16 per muffin at a conference two years ago, calling on someone to be fired over the 2009 baked good kerfuffle.

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Justice Department

Grassley: Budget Cuts Should Start With DOJ's $16 Muffins

Ryan J. Reilly | September 21, 2011, 2:30PM

Simon Greig / Shutterstock

When the Super Committee starts making budget cuts, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) knows just where they should start: the Justice Department's $16 muffins.

DOJ's Inspector General on Tuesday released an audit of the agency's spending on conference planning and food and beverage costs that highlighted some examples of wasteful spending in fiscal years 2008 and 2009, periods which spanned both the Bush and Obama administrations.

One example: The law enforcement agency spent $16 each on 250 muffins served at a D.C. legal conference held in August 2009.

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Fast And Furious

Dem Response To ATF Scandal: Hey, Maybe We Should Make Gun Trafficking Illegal

Ryan J. Reilly | July 18, 2011, 3:50PM

Rep. Darrell E. Issa (D-CA) and Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD)

Everyone seems pretty upset right now with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) over their botched "Fast and Furious" program. Agents allegedly watched as suspected "straw purchasers" bought weapons they intended to give to Mexican drug cartels. So Democrats have a crazy idea: maybe buying weapons for drug cartels should be, you know, illegal.

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Ken Melson

ATF Director 'Sick To His Stomach' When He Learned Details Of Fast And Furious

Susan Crabtree | July 6, 2011, 12:17PM

Acting ATF Head, Ken Melson

Ken Melson, the embattled acting head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), told Congressional investigators that he became "sick to his stomach" after learning details of the troubled anti-gun-trafficking program called Fast and Furious.

Melson on Tuesday testified for the first time before investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform and Senate Judiciary Committees, which have been pummeling the administration with questions about controversial tactics to stop the flow of weapons from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels. Melson, who appeared in a private meeting before the panel with his own personal counsel rather than Justice Department attorneys, said DOJ officials had prevented him from cooperating with Congress' investigations thus far.

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Keep America Safe

Angry Holder: Liz Cheney Ad Targeting Lawyers Was 'Reprehensible' (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | April 14, 2010, 5:42PM

Liz Cheney and Attorney General Eric Holder

More than a month after the flap over an ad from Liz Cheney's group attacked lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees as terrorist sympathizers, Attorney General Eric Holder denounced the ad today as "reprehensible" and offered an impassioned defense of what the lawyers did.

In an exchange with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) flagged by Huffington Post, Holder reference the ad from Cheney's group Keep America Safe, but did not cite it by name.

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Lindsey Graham

Is Lindsey Graham Playing Both Sides On DOJ Lawyers Fracas?

Zachary Roth | March 10, 2010, 11:20AM

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC)

Is Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) playing both sides on the "controversy" over Justice Department lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees?

Yesterday, the South Carolina senator joined a growing chorus of conservatives in slamming a recent ad by Liz Cheney's advocacy group that questioned the loyalties of seven DOJ attorneys who had previously represented Gitmo detainees. The ad, by Keep America Safe, referred to the lawyers as "the Al Qaeda Seven," and asked "Whose values do they represent?"

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Justice Department

Anatomy Of A Smear: Cheney Attacks DOJ Attorneys As Terrorist-Friendly (VIDEO)

Justin Elliott | March 2, 2010, 3:18PM

Liz Cheney and Attorney General Eric Holder (inset)

An attack on Justice Department officials who previously represented detainees at Guantanamo was spawned by Sen. Chuck Grassley at a hearing last November, ricocheted around the right-wing media, and culminated today in a video release by Liz Cheney's group that all but accuses the lawyers of being terrorists.

The campaign-style ad from Cheney's Keep America Safe dubs the lawyers "the Al Qaeda Seven" and asks, "Whose values do they share?" while flashing a picture of Osama bin Laden. (Watch it below.)

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PhRMA

Drug-Makers Paying Off Competitors To Keep Cheap Generics Off Market

Zachary Roth | December 2, 2009, 3:07PM

Republicans and their allies in the business community talk a good game about the virtues of free-market competition. But, as we've seen in the debate over the public option, that stance often goes out the window when corporate profits are at stake.

And now we've got another example -- one of the sleaziest and most blatantly self-serving yet.

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American Future Fund

GOP Group Undermining Robo-Call Laws Has Ties To DCI

Zachary Roth | November 24, 2009, 5:37PM

American Future Fund (AFF), the shadowy conservative advocacy group that's working to undermine state laws against robo-calling, has ties to DCI Group, a Republican lobbying firm with a reputation for dirty tricks and shady clients. And a closer look at AFF suggests the group has been designed to carry out political attacks while escaping scrutiny from the press and public.

AFF paid $249,000 last year to McKenna & Associates for fundraising work, according to a copy of AFF's 990 form for 2008 that was obtained by TPMmuckraker. The Arlington, Virginia-based firm is run by Andrew McKenna, a GOP operative and former senior vice-president of DCI Group. McKenna did not immediately respond to TPMmuckraker's request for comment.

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Gerald Walpin

GOP Inquiry Fails To Show Obama's Firing Of AmeriCorps IG Was Politicized

Justin Elliott | November 20, 2009, 6:52PM

Gerald Walpin and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson

A congressional GOP inquiry into the firing of the inspector general for AmeriCorps has been garnering headlines mostly for revealing details of allegations of sexual misconduct by Sacramento Mayor and Obama ally Kevin Johnson. But on the key question of whether the IG, Gerald Walpin, was fired for improper political reasons, the report brings little new to the table.

Prepared by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the report asserts that the White House's "failure to use a transparent process to effectuate Walpin's removal deprived the President of an opportunity to explain his action in an appropriate way."

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Swiftboating

Notorious PR Firm That Reps Swift Boaters, Creationists, PhRMA Now Helping Fired IG

Justin Elliott | November 20, 2009, 5:12PM

Gerald Walpin

A heavy-hitting conservative public relations firm that flacked for Swift Boat Veterans for Truth and boasts an impressive array of right-wing clients is now helping Gerald Walpin, who was fired this summer by President Obama as the inspector general for AmeriCorps.

Creative Response Concepts Public Relations (CRC) is representing Walpin, a secretary who answered the phone at the company confirmed to TPMmuckraker today.

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