Ranking Senate Judiciary Committee member Chuck Grassley issued a statement moments ago concerning today’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee minority report absolving Justice Department officials of responsibility for the Operation Fast and Furious “gunwalking” scandal.
“The Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder initially denied gunwalking occurred, but have since withdrawn the denials and admitted that ATF whistleblowers were right to complain about the reckless tactic,” Grassley states.
Citing “the constitutional responsibility of Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch,” Grassley accuses the Justice Department of stonewalling “every step of [his] investigation.”
“[T]he Justice Department has provided 80,000 pages of documents to the Inspector General, but has provided only 6,000 pages of documents to Congress,” Grassley reveals. “Yet, the department has provided no explanation for withholding each of those 74,000 pages.”
“The idea that senior political appointees have clean hands in these gunwalking scandals doesn’t pass the laugh test, especially considering we’ve seen less than 10 percent of the pages that the Justice Department has provided the Inspector General,” the release continues.
They ignored the warning signs and failed to put a stop to it or hold anyone accountable. Lanny Breuer is a senior political appointee, and he admits to knowing about gunwalking as early as April 2010. Documents turned over late Friday night indicate he was still discussing plans to let guns cross the border with Mexican officials on the same day the Department denied to me in writing that ATF would ever let guns walk. He stood mute as this administration fought tooth and nail to keep any of this information from coming out for a year. It will take a lot more than a knee-jerk defense from their political allies in Congress to restore public trust in the leadership of the Justice Department. The American people want to see those who failed to act be held accountable.”
Included with the release were attachments including an April 30, 2010 email exchange between Breuer and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason M. Weinstein acknowledging walked guns have been recovered in crimes and discussing ways to avoid “highlighting the negative part of the story” and mitigate “risking embarrassing ATF” by conflating Fast and Furious with earlier operations—similar to what administration apologists including the House Democrats did in the minority report released earlier today. Also included were emails regarding Breuer’s February 2011 proposal to Mexican authorities for joint cross-border gunwalking surveillance—after our government had been allowing it to happen with disastrous consequences and without their cognizance.
See the sidebar slideshow for screenshots of the attachments included with Grassley’s release.
Also see:
- Dave Workman: Under the bus? Dem report blames AZ officials only for F&F
- Does ‘fatally flawed’ minority report on gunwalking ‘absolve’ administration?
- A Journalist’s Guide to ‘Project Gunwalker' (most current volume) for a complete list with links of independent investigative reporting and commentary done to date by Sipsey Street Irregulars and Gun Rights Examiner. Note to newcomers to this story: “Project Gunrunner” is the name ATF assigned to its Southwest Border Initiative to interdict gun smuggling to Mexico. “Project Gunwalker” is the name I assigned to the scandal after allegations by agents that monitored guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands on both sides of the border through a surveillance process termed “walking” surfaced.
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