The administration that promised to be the most transparent in history provided another late Friday docu-dump to minimize press attention to an adverse story. This one contains emails that prove that AG Eric Holder’s office was informed about the circumstances of Brian Terry’s death the very day it happened.
An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”
That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”
Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.
Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”
Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.
Holder has said that he only learned the details of Fast and Furious a few weeks before Congressional hearings on it. But the emails prove that he knew Terry had been killed the day of the killing, and that his office knew the gun involved was from Fast and Furious. Which means his deputy chief of staff, at least, knew of Fast and Furious a long time before Holder has admitted that he did.
Is it plausible that Wilkinson knew but Holder didn’t?
Join the conversation as a VIP Member