Gunwalker: Testimony Reveals Eric Holder’s Obfuscation Tactics
Attorney General Eric Holder continues to duck responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious, which allowed more than 2,500 weapons, including thousands of AK-47 variants and .50 caliber sniper rifles, across the Mexican border and into the hands of the cartels. The weapons were used to murder Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry and an estimated 150 Mexican nationals.
In May of this year, Holder was called to testify in front of Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-CA) House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to answer questions about the program — which Holder claimed he’d first heard of in the media.
Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley, (R-IA), ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, have been complaining for months now that the Department of Justice has been obstructing the investigation, to the degree of possible witness tampering.
Holder’s Justice Department finally responded to a letter from Issa and Grassley. But according to a new letter from them, Holder is merely continuing to obfuscate, a fact underscored by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Acting Director Ken Melson initially being prevented from briefing or testifying to Congress, as his eventual personal testimony states.
According to the latest release from Issa and Grassley:
“It was very frustrating to all of us, and it appears thoroughly to us that the Department is really trying to figure out a way to push the information away from their political appointees at the Department,” ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson said of his frustration with the Justice Department’s response to the investigation in a transcribed interview.
Indeed, Melson’s testimony makes it clear he feared the consequences of not coming clean from the beginning, as Issa and Grassley state in their letter:
[A]fter receiving [Senator Grassley's initial] letter, our first instinct and intuition was to directly march over to Senator Grassley’s office and brief him on what Fast and Furious was for purposes of explaining the concept and the role it played and how it got there, and where ATF was going in it. And we expressed that desire to the [Deputy Attorney General]‘s office.
The DOJ did not permit Mr. Melson to brief Senator Grassley. Instead, the Department devised a strategy to withhold information from the senator. Mr. Melson testified further:
I sat in [the office of the Associate Deputy Attorney General with responsibility for ATF] one day when they were writing the letter to Senator Grassley about him being only a ranking member and not the chair of the committee. I sat there across the desk from [him], as I recall, and said, this is really just poking [Senator Grassley] in the eye. What’s the sense of doing this? Even if you say you can’t give it to him, he’s going to get it through the back door anyhow, so why are we aggravating this situation.
Congress had demanded answers as far back as February 10, and was possibly lied to in an open hearing:
Instead of providing Congress answers from the individuals best-positioned to provide them, Mr. Melson and his staff were muzzled. The decision to withhold information at the earliest sign of congressional interest set the Justice Department on a course that required Congress to aggressively pursue testimony and documents elsewhere. As you now know, this was entirely avoidable. The Department’s leadership chose to protect its own interests at the expense of exposing the leadership of a subordinate agency to Congressional scrutiny.
While Congress waited, ATF’s senior leaders examined how and why Fast and Furious happened. Mr. Melson and his staff identified institutional problems. They concluded that the Phoenix Field Division needed new supervision and reassigned every manager involved in Fast and Furious. Mr. Melson wanted to share this important development with Congress to show that ATF was taking the allegations seriously. The Department resisted. Mr. Melson observed that “[t]he [Deputy Attorney General's] office wasn’t very happy with us, because they thought this was an admission that there were mistakes made. Well, there were some mistakes made.” (Emphasis in original)
Please check into the Ian Garland story. Ian Garland was a gun store owner. He is sitting in jail. He was used by ATF and the Sheriff of Columbus NM. Not only is there dead cops, civilians and who knows how many wounded, there is an innocent man sitting in jail.
This guy’s getting the ATF royal shaft isn’t he?
Melson say anything about Ian Garland?
Disgusting.
When you buy a firearm from an FFL, you have to fill out form 4473 as part of the sale/background check. The form asks if you are buying the firearm for yourself. To be legal, you must buy the firearm for your own ownership. It is illegal to buy it for someone else. The mayor and sheriff, told Mr. Garland that they were buying the weapons for others, therefore all involved knew their answers on the 4473, that they were the intended owners of the weapons, were false. Thus, all were guilty of breaking the law.
That said, even the dealers who were told to let illegal sales go ahead, should have been wary. Without written authorization from the ATF, that agency could have been setting those dealers up for a double cross, and eventual prosecution. Remember, the real purpose of the operation, was to fabricate evidence, to push for more gun control.
But I think the way it was handled went sideways and it could have been avoided with perhaps a more thoughtful approach to what was going on instead of such a strident approach to it. I think there could have been accommodations made between the Hill and ATF and DOJ as to how information was shared.
That sounds so very nice, doesn’t it? But it boils down to “Even though we helped bad guys get guns and murder people, it would have been so much nicer in the aftermath if we hadn’t been so upsetting in how we dealt with Congress.”
I can’t decide if Melson actually remembered he has a conscience and is trying to make things a bit more ‘right’, or if he’s just trying desperately to get out of his share of the responsibility in this.
Melson’s pretending to be conscience ridden while desperately trying to get out of his share of responsibility in all this.
I’m trying to picture the media response if G. W. Bush was walking illegal guns to Tea Party types. I’m picturing it would not be this compliant.
Maybe my own Senator – Sen Boxer (D. – CA) – would even care. Until Bush does this, unfortunately, she’s just going to have to worry more about DOMA and FOX News.
Spot-on.
I wonder if Melson will end up like Scooter Libby. If Holder wants to be certain that no political appointee will ever be held responsible for this maybe he should appoint Patrick Fitzgerald to do the investigation.
The point is that Holder shouldn’t be appointing anybody to do anything in pursuing this investigation. As it goes back to his office, there’s a clear conflict of interest.
Let’s take this down to a lower, and more understandable level, shall we?
If a city District Attorney’s office were suspected of involvement with the local PD’s Intelligence Division in supplying guns to street gangs (for whatever reason), and losing track of them, the first thing that would happen would be that the department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD) would take over the police side of the investigation- and all officers involved would be on desk duty or suspension with pay until IAD determined who did what.
Similarly, the DA’s office would be under investigation by the City Attorney’s office (a different office entirely), and all personnel there would be similarly off the job. Including the DA himself, if there was credible evidence that he was involved, even in the decision-making process to go ahead with the op.
In the end, if violations of the law were found to have happened, those who were responsible would be prosecuted, and if convicted could face at least fines, possibly time in prison, and almost certainly losing their jobs even if they just got the fines. (Charlie Foxes like this are not generally considered “career-enhancing” in law enforcement, believe me. As the old saying goes, one “Oh, S**t!” in your personnel jacket generally wipes out a dozen or so “Attaboys”.)
With Holder, we have the equivalent of the District Attorney being allowed to investigate his own actions- and throw every roadblock he can think of in the way of the investigation.
The legal term for that is “obstruction”. And it’s a felony in and of itself.
That may be “the Chicago way”, but it’s not how the law is written, and certainly not how it’s supposed to work.
Holder should be suspended as AG until this investigation is over, one way or another. Allowing him to “manage” the investigation as he is doing reminds me irresistibly of John Mitchell’s actions as Richard Nixon’s Attorney General during Watergate.
However, I notice that the MSM have yet to make that comparison. I can’t imagine why…
/Do I really need the tag?
clear ether
eon
Melson will not end up like Libby. Libby, knowing he was innocent talked to the FBI and “Justice Dept.” investigators without his lawyer. Melson has his lawyer. Big difference.
The House needs to initiate impeachment proceedings against Holder. Sending up letters and requests for information will continue to go nowhere.
Holder is not a sympathetic figure and has been doing the dirty work for Obama. There is a long list of transgressions from the DOJ political appointees, all leading to Holder. As they unfold, Obama will be called to either defend them or toss Holder under the bus with Jeremy Wright and his grandmother. This will be in the year before the election and will help in focusing the criminal behavior on the incumbent not George Bush.
“The House needs to initiate impeachment proceedings against Holder”
He is not an elected official, there for can’t he just be charged with the crime and arrested?
“[C]an’t he just be charged with the crime and arrested?”
By whom? Henhouse, meet the foxes. In all honesty it seems this administration has perfected the art of circular CYA.
Anonymous – That depends on your interpretation of Article II, Sect. 4 of the US Constitution and the meaning of civil officers: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Better to insist on a special prosecutor first, or continue to gather evidence through hearings. Now that repubs control the house, the dems can no longer stop investigations coming from there, like they can from the senate. Don’t start impeachment until you already have ironclad evidence to convict.
. . . . awfully sad, . . . surrounded by small piles of brown, smelly stuff and America appears as unable to easily and expeditiously make the identification and get the mess cleaned up, and move forward in decency, . . .
The Obama Regime has lost all credibility (if it ever had any). Of course, Obama and his socialists understand they don’t have to fool ALL of the people ALL of the time, they just have to fool enough people to stay in power.
Between now and November 2012, look for some major “crisis” to erupt, requiring Obama to take “dratic measures” to “save the [blank]“.
You are absolutely on target. I have been saying this for the past year after watching how the Regime handles problem areas. Ignoring the Arizona and New Mexico wildfires, ignoring the flooding up in the Dakotas, ignoring the Voting Act, ignoring the gun running scandal but let Texas make the O policies look inane by succeeding during extremely difficult economic circumstances and boom the EPA drops a bomb probably to keep Rick Perry tied up and off the campaign trail. Of course, the “disruption” will be enormous.
This guy is cynical and very spiteful.
this entire regime needs to be sentenced to 40 years and one day in fort leavenworth macking little rocks from big ones 12 hours a day with a 15 minute break at nine oclock and thirty minutse for lunch and 15 minutes at four,
I’ll say this again: In what universe is it a good idea to allow guns to walk into the hands of known criminals?
Anyone who allows government to claim Fast and Furious was done with the best of intentions is aiding and abetting government getting away with murder.
The only possible (unstated) reason for this misbegotten excuse of an operation is creating incidents that lead to more stringent gun control. The people currently running this country are okay with citizens being killed, as long as it serves a “higher purpose.” In this case “higher purpose” means “advancing their agenda.”
Yep.
It is called totalitarianism.
And one wonders how many Citizens who have actually VOTED to put this administration in power will be killed by the weapons that this administration has given to the narcos.
It’s always the same story with the commies: “Power to the people” ends always up in “kill the people”.
I guess the Media Matters Blast Fax Drones haven’t found this website yet. Thank God. I have been following FnF since January. This is the worst scandal ever.
SO NOW, WHAT ARE ”WE THE PEOPLE” GOING TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT EVERYONE IN ”OUR WHITE HOUSE”….”WHO WE GONNA CALL” WE HAVE NO ONE TO TAKE UP THE CAUSE, BUT ‘AMERICAN CITIZENS’ YOU CAN’T TRUST ANYONE ANY MORE, CONGRESS, SENATE, JUDGES, WHAT A GAME THEY PLAY WITH AMERICANS, WHATS SAD IS LETTING THIS GO ON & ON & ON..GOD BLESS ALL WHO STAND FOR FREEDOM..
Perhaps they need to de-fund the ATF and the DOJ maybe then Issa and Grassley will get the information they want.
None of this will stop until “WE THE PEOPLE” take up arms, storm the castle, and remove this whole corrupt gov’t and put them in the empty prison in Montana for life. I vote to make Bawney Fwank and Nanny P-loosey cellmates.
They damn well better not back down. This administration has pushed just once too many times and they need to be called on the carpet for all the crap they have committed.