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

Emails Rebuff Republican Suggestion That Bush-Era 'Gun Walking' Was Always Coordinated With Mexico

Ryan J. Reilly | January 5, 2012, 7:03PM

Updated: Jan. 6, 10:43AM

At least twenty weapons that were allowed to "walk" during a Bush-era investigation aimed at combating gun trafficking were later recovered in Mexico, documents the Justice Department sent to congressional investigators on Thursday indicate.

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Fast And Furious

Inspector's Probe Of Fast And Furious Likely Encompasses Bush-Era 'Gun Walking'

Ryan J. Reilly | December 16, 2011, 1:58PM

The Justice Department Inspector General's review of the flawed ATF program in which guns were allowed to "walk" across the Mexican border will include other investigations that used similar methods, according to the IG's semi-annual report to Congress.

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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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Michael Mukasey

The Memo Bush AG Mukasey Got On ATF's 'Gun Walking'

Ryan J. Reilly | November 4, 2011, 1:20PM

Two days after former Attorney General Michael Mukasey took over as head of the Bush administration's Justice Department in 2007, he got a memo describing a failed effort by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to track weapons as they "walked" into Mexico.

TPM has obtained a copy of the memo, which was first reported on by Pete Yost of the Associated Press, which was turned over to the House Oversight Committee this week.

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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

DOJ Official Regrets Not Connecting Bush-Era Gun Walking Tactics To Fast And Furious Concerns

Ryan J. Reilly | October 31, 2011, 5:36PM

A top Justice Department official said Monday that he regretted not informing others in DOJ's leadership about a Bush-era operation that used the flawed "gun walking" tactic like the technique used in Operation Fast and Furious.

Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads DOJ's Criminal Division, said in a statement released by DOJ that he first learned of "unacceptable tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver" in April 2010. He instructed one of his deputies to schedule a meeting with ATF's Acting Director Ken Melson to bring the issue to his attention.

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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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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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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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