Rep. Darrell Issa

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ATF Leadership Not Ignorant Of Gunwalking

June 15, 2011 by

In his opening statement, Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) revealed that the upper management of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was intimately aware of what was going on with Operation Fast and Furious.

The documents can be found here.

George Gillett, Jr. was the ASAC of the Phoenix Field Division. When he saw that he was going to be thrown under the bus, he became a whistle-blower. The impact of that decision can be seen in the documents which I assume he furnished the Committee. As I said back in April, Gillett becoming a whistle-blower was the equivalent of a John Mitchell, H.R. Halderman, or John Ehrlichman rolling over on Richard Nixon during the Watergate Scandal.


WASHINGTON, D.C. – Moments ago in his opening statement at today’s hearing, Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) released three e-mails detailing the intimate involvement of ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson and Acting Deputy Director Bill Hoover in Operation Fast and Furious:

• The first e-mail from March 10, 2010, to Operation Fast and Furious Group VII Leader David Voth indicates that the two most senior leaders in ATF, Acting Director Kenneth Melson, and Deputy Director Billy Hoover, were “being briefed weekly on” Operation Fast and Furious. The document shows that both Melson and Hoover were “keenly interested in case updates.”

• A second e-mail from March 12, 2010, shows that Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William McMahon was so excited about Fast and Furious that he received a special briefing on the program in Phoenix – scheduled for a mere 45 minutes after his plane landed.

• A third – and perhaps the most disturbing – e-mail from April 12, 2010, indicates that Acting Director Melson was very much in the weeds with Operation Fast and Furious. After a detailed briefing of the program by the ATF Phoenix Field Division, Acting Director Melson had a plethora of follow-up questions that required additional research to answer. As the document indicates, Mr. Melson was interested in the IP Address for hidden cameras located inside cooperating gun shops. With this information, Acting Director Melson was able to sit at his desk in Washington and – himself – watch a live feed of the straw buyers entering the gun stores to purchase dozens of AK-47 variants.

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It Begins

June 13, 2011 by 2 Comments

The public investigation into Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker) begins in earnest this afternoon. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and the House Oversight Committee will hold their first public hearing into this botched operation. Today’s hearing is to lay the constitutional groundwork for Congress to investigate an Executive branch agency. On Wednesday, the Committee will start getting to the meat of the allegations with testimony by ATF agents, Brian Terry’s family, Sen. Chuck Grassley, and Assistant AG Ronald Weich.

Hearing Documents

Chairman Darrell Issa Hearing Preview Statement
June 13, 2011

Monday’s hearing of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform follows three months of effort by congressional investigators to understand the rationale, policy, and practical execution of a controversial government program that allowed straw purchasers to buy heavy-duty arms and traffic them into Mexico to be used by drug cartels. To date, the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms have refused to comply with a congressional subpoena for material documents related to this program that was issued on March 31, 2011. The administration’s unwillingness to recognize the constitutional authority of the Congress to conduct investigations, and its continued refusal to provide documents necessary for the Congress to perform its essential oversight responsibility, may constitute an obstruction of justice that requires intervention of the federal judiciary or other legal action.

Regrettably, this seems to be the course preferred by the Department of Justice. Congressional investigators have learned that the administration’s strategy is not to comply with the Committee’s subpoena, to instruct department employees not to cooperate with Congress, and ultimately to pressure its complete withdrawal. This will not happen.

The American people have a right to know whether their government has aided and abetted crimes committed at our border with Mexico. They have a right to know what happened, why it happened, and who is responsible. In cases where the administration resists or otherwise refuses to comply with a congressional subpoena and provide answers to these questions, the Committee must enforce compliance. This, we will do.

To assist the Committee in its constitutional effort to uphold the rule of law and assert the investigative prerogatives of Congress, Monday’s hearing will include testimony from leading constitutional law experts and noted authorities on the history and processes of congressional oversight.

The hearing will be webcast live at oversight.house.gov .

The constitutional experts who will be witnesses today include the following which are also linked to their pre-submitted written testimony on the topic.

Professor Charles Tiefer
Commissioner
Commission on Wartime Contracting

Mr. Morton Rosenberg
Former Specialist in American Public Law
American Law Division
Congressional Research Service

Mr. Todd Tatelman
Legislative Attorney, American Law Division
Congressional Research Service

Mr. Louis Fisher
Scholar in Residence
The Constitution Project

UPDATE: C-Span now has the full video of today’s hearing up on their site. Unfortunately, it wasn’t embeddable. You have to go to this link to watch it. The one advantage to watching the delayed broadcast is that you can skip ahead as well as replay portions of it.

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Second Operation Fast And Furious Oversight Hearing Announced

June 9, 2011 by 1 Comment

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has announced a second hearing to be held into Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker) next week. According to the notice on the Committee’s website, the 2-hour hearing will take place Wednesday, June 15th.

The Full Committee hearing entitled, “Operation Fast and Furious: Reckless Decisions, Tragic Outcomes” will take place at 9:30am on Wednesday, June 15 in room 2154 RHOB.

The hearing will be streamed live at http://oversight.house.gov.

According to David Codrea’s National Gun Rights Examiner column there will be three panels of witnesses including ATF agents, Senator Chuck Grassley, members of Brian Terry’s family, and Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich.

The manner in which Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is holding these hearings seems to be very wise. He starts by building the constitutional case for investigating ATF and DOJ and then goes to the consequences of their actions. I anticipate it will go from there and build into making the case that this was no rogue operation dreamed up by SAC William Newell out in Phoenix. Rather it was explicitly authorized by political appointees in the Obama Administration.

This seems to be the argument that Issa made yesterday when he was interviewed on the Hugh Hewitt Show. From the show’s transcript which can be found here. Definitely read the whole thing as Issa goes into other areas of oversight.

HH: … But when did this Fast and Furious program start that countenanced, basically, Americans selling guns with the effort to sting someone on the other side? When did it start?

DI: It started with this administration.

HH: It is?

DI: It started with, literally, the political appointees, many of whom had to approve specifics of this, including funding. And understand, there were agents at the ATF who have testified that they believe this was a good program. And there are agents who gave up their careers, basically, by refusing to be involved in it. So it was controversial. But it’s not about the agents in Arizona, or a similar program in Texas. It’s about the approvals all the way back in Washington. This is the Iran Contra decision. The Iran Contra decision was made by people around the President in the White House. This decision was made at least by people in the Office of Attorney General Holder. And they’re hiding behind every delay tactic they can, claiming that we’re going to interfere with an investigation. I’ve got to tell you, Hugh, I don’t want anyone to walk because of our investigation. But if some meth addict doesn’t get a strong sentence for buying guns, that’s probably not the worst damage if this kind of program continues, and we believe it continues to today.

Comparing it to Iran-Contra is probably correct. That said, I don’t expect the Obama Administration to produce an Ollie North or a Fawn Hall that can generate support and sympathy for the program. An Eric Holder, a Ken Melson, or a Lanny Breur just don’t inspire confidence or sympathy especially given the tragic outcomes. Stopping Communism in the Western Hemisphere hits a little closer to home than trying to build support for more gun control in the United States by helping the violence to increase across the border in Mexico.

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Darrel Issa: “This Was No Rogue Operation”

June 5, 2011 by 1 Comment

Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Operations Committee, was interviewed about Project Gunrunner today on FoxNews. Among the things he said in the interview was a promise for a series of hearings, that the hearings will begin this summer, and that the investigation will look into just high this went in the Obama Administration. As he noted, this was “no rogue operation” done by ATF agents in the field on their own. Everyone that his investigators has interviewed in the field, whether for or against this operation, has said that the orders came from above.

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Darrell Issa Puts Eric Holder On The Hot Seat

May 3, 2011 by 3 Comments

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch the live feed from the House Judiciary Committee hearings this morning. From the video just put up by CBS News, it looks like there were some fireworks!


In the prepared statement submitted to the Committee, Holder made no mention of Operation Fast and Furious and only brief mention of anything to due with the border with Mexico.

Over the last year the Department has continued to aggressively combat violence along our country’s Southwest border. We have dedicated significant anpower resources towards working with our Mexican government counterparts to ssist their crime-fighting capacity, and prosecute the cartel members whose drug trade is the root cause of violence in that region.

With regard to firearms, he made only one brief mention and it was only in the context of protecting law enforcement officers.

At the same time, we must work to prevent gun crimes before they occur. I am committed to strengthening systems that prevent individuals who are legally prohibited from possessing firearms from obtaining weapons. This is a critical public safety goal we can achieve without infringing on the rights of lawful gun owners.

If the Judiciary Committee releases a transcript of the hearings, I will post relevant excerpts as they pertain to firearms and Project Gunwalker.

UPDATE: A less edited version of Issa grilling Eric Holder can be found on YouTube. Unfortunately, embedding has been disabled so you will have to watch it here.

UPDATE II: Here is a hot link to Mike Vanderboegh’s report along with reactions from ATF agents to Holders testimony today.

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Issa Threatens ATF Acting Director With Contempt Citation

April 20, 2011 by 2 Comments

Rep. Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is not a happy man. He is not happy because the Department of Justice and the Acting Director of ATF, Kenneth Melson, are continuing to blow off the requests for documents related to Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker). This is in the face of a supoena requesting documents issued by the Committee.

Rep. Issa is so unhappy that he is threatening to have Melson cited for Contempt of Congress according to a letter released this morning. I have embedded the letter below. In the letter, Issa states that absent a claim of executive privilege ATF and DOJ have no authority to withhold the documents requested by Issa’s committee. Moreover, internal DOJ policies do not suffice as a reason to withhold documents and impede Congress in its constitutional authority.

A year ago this could not have happened. The Republicans did not have a majority in the House of Representatives and there is no way that Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) would have threatened to jack up the head of ATF. Elections most certainly do have consequences.
4-20-11 Melson Follow Up Letter

H/T David Codrea and Mike Vanderboegh

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