Chuck Grassley

Uncategorized

Chuck Grassley On FoxNews About ATF Changes

August 31, 2011 by

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was interviewed today about the changes at ATF and DOJ by Jenna Lee of Fox News.

While Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) was given a courtesy call by Attorney General Eric Holder about the changes, Grassley was not despite being the Ranking Minority Member on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Common courtesy never has been a strong suit of anyone in the Obama Administration it seems.

Asked about whether DOJ is still stonewalling on the request for documents, Grassley said it has improved but they are still getting many documents that are just black sheets of paper.

Uncategorized

Melson: DOJ Response to Fast and Furious Investigation Intended to Protect Political Appointees

July 18, 2011 by 1 Comment

Attorney General Eric Holder is not as politically astute as I previously thought despite having been groomed by the Clintons. If he were more politically astute, he would have known better than to make a career bureaucrat the fall-guy for Operation Fast and Furious because they are exceedingly adept at in-fighting. Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson is currently serving in a slot set aside for a political appointee. However, Melson had been a career employee of the Department of Justice from 1983 until 2009 when he was appointed Acting Director with the understanding he would return to the career service. He didn’t get to the Senior Executive Service on talent and good looks alone.

When Melson was made the designated fall-guy, he balked. Moreover, he began to talk to Congressional investigators which led to today’s 10-page letter to Holder from Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley asking about “the smoking gun” so to speak.

Chairman Issa and Senator Grassley Press Attorney General Holder with Key Testimony

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Chuck Grassley today pressed Attorney General Eric Holder about the Justice Department’s unsatisfactory responses and lack of cooperation with an investigation into the highly controversial Operation Fast and Furious. A letter sent by the two lead investigators highlighted testimony indicating internal disputes within the Justice Department and a statement from the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that the Justice Department is attempting to protect its political appointees.

“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.

“The Department should not be withholding what Mr. Melson described as the ‘smoking gun’ report of investigation or Mr. Melson’s emails regarding the wiretap applications,” wrote Issa and Grassley. “Mr. Melson said he reviewed the affidavits in support of the wiretap applications for the first time after the controversy became public and immediately contacted the Deputy Attorney General’s office to raise concerns about information in them that was inconsistent with the Department’s public denials. The Department should also address the serious questions raised by Mr. Melson’s testimony regarding potential informants for other agencies.”

The full text of that letter can be found here. It is very interesting. The letter and Melson’s testimony leads one to believe that an active cover-up is in process at DOJ and that documents have been created after the fact.

Uncategorized

Issa And Grassley Press DEA And FBI For Answers

July 18, 2011 by

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) are pressing the heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for answers to their agencies’ involvement in Operation Fast and Furious. This is amid reports that some of the targets of the ATF in Project were actually paid FBI informants.

While Issa and Grassley are pressing for information, I fully expect at the FBI to try and stonewall them.

Grassley, Issa Press for Answers from FBI, DEA in Fast and Furious Investigation

WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa are pushing for additional information and documents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in relation to the two agencies roles in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) reckless strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious. The strategy employed by the ATF allowed firearms to be purchased by known straw buyers and then transferred to third parties where the guns often crossed the border to Mexican drug cartels.

The letters are a follow-up to a recorded, transcribed interview with Acting ATF Director Ken Melson. The Acting Director was interviewed by congressional investigators on July 4 where he corroborated several details that included other agencies involved in Operation Fast and Furious.

In the letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Grassley and Issa asked about the “veracity of claims” regarding the possible involvement of paid FBI informants in Operation Fast and Furious and “specifically at least one individual who is allegedly an FBI informant” and “might have been in communication with, and was perhaps even conspiring with, at least one suspect whom ATF was monitoring.”

The letter to DEA Administrator Michelle Leonhart requested a briefing by DEA staff as well as “the number of informants or cooperating informants handled by other agencies identified in the course of any investigations related to Operation Fast and Furious.”

In addition, both letters (to Mueller and Leonhart) asked for communications of several members of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force who were working in coordination with the ATF to conduct Operation Fast and Furious.

The full letter to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart can be found here.

The full letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller can be found here.

Both letters are detailed in the information sought. The Leonhart letter specifically asks about any communications regarding Fast and Furious by the heads or assistant heads of the DEA offices in Phoenix, Tucson, Nogales, and Yuma. This letter also asks for any information relating to Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta who is the lone person in custody who can be linked to the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The Mueller letter is broader in scope than the Leonhart letter. It seeks info on confidential informants, the investigation into the murder of ICE Agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico, and any communications between ATF and certain FBI officials including ones in Phoenix, El Paso, and Tucson. They especially are looking to see if ATF and the FBI agent in charge of the Terry murder investigation have had any communications.

If they get the information they request, things could heat up very quickly and even the mainstream media would not be able to ignore it like most of them have been doing these last few months.

Uncategorized

Issa And Grassley Name Names

July 12, 2011 by 2 Comments

In what Mike Vanderboegh calls the Dirty Dozen (loved that movie!), Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley have sent another letter to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting documents in reference to 12 people they say at the Justice Department who knew about about Operation Fast and Furious (aka Project Gunwalker) and its implementation.

This was the second letter that Issa and Grassley sent to Eric Holder yesterday. As Matthew Boyle reports in the Daily Caller, their first letter ripped into Holder over skewing potential witnesses (aka witness tampering) by allowing access to sensitive background information.

July 11, 2011

The Honorable Eric Holder
Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avennue, NW
Washington DC 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As our investigation in Operation Fast and Furious has progressed, we have learned that senior officials at the Department of Justice (DOJ), including Senate-confirmed political appointees, were unquestionably aware of the implementation of this reckless program. Therefore it is necessary to review communications between and among these senior officials. As such, please provide all records relating to communications between and among the following individuals regarding Operation Fast and Furious:

1. David Ogden, Former Deputy Attorney General;

2. Gary Grindler, Officer of the Attorney General and former Acting Deputy Attorney General;

3. James Cole, Deputy Attorney General;

4. Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General;

5. Kenneth Blanco, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

6. Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

7. John Keeney, Deputy Assistant Attorney General;

8. Matt Axelrod, Associate Deputy Attorney General;

9. Ed Siskel, Former Associate Deputy Attorney General;

10. Brad Smith, Office of the Deputy Attorney General;

11. Kevin Carwhile, Section Chief, Capitol Case Unit; and

12. Joseph Cooley, Criminal Fraud Section.

These records should include e-mails, memoranda, briefing papers, and handwritten notes. Additionally, any records related to communications referring to a large firearms trafficking case within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) or in Phoenix should be included in any production.

Please provide this information no later than July 18, 2011, at noon. If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt in Ranking Member Grassley’s office at (202) 224-5225 or Henry Kerner of Chairman Issa’s Committee staff at (202) 225-5074. I look forward to receiving your response.

Sincerely,

Darrell Issa, Chairman, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

Charles Grassley, Ranking Member, Senate Committee on the Judiciary

cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman, U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary

UPDATE: Bob Owens at Confederate Yankee is reporting that the no. 5 guy on the list, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Blanco is being set up to be the probable “fall guy” for Operation Fast and Furious.

The primary reason, as it always is with anything involving Holder and Obama, is politics. Blanco is not the politico that his superiors are, which is strike one. they look out after theri own, and while Blanco is career, he isn’t apparently an Obamite. He is apparently a decent human being and competent DAAG, according to the source. That’s two strikes against him in an organization as corrupt and politicized as the highest levels of Justice.

Blanco’s third strike happens to be the fact that he was the signing authority that authorized the wiretaps for Fast and Furious.

Let’s hope that like another (formerly) designated fall guy named Kenneth, Mr. Blanco goes to see Chairman Issa with his own attorney.

Uncategorized

Grassley On New Reporting Requirement

July 12, 2011 by

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) was the first person in Congress to bring attention to Operation Fast and Furious and continues to push for answers to this day. Along with Darrell Issa and their respective staffs, he probably understands as much about Project Gunwalker as anyone. So when he comments on the new ATF requirement, it is with an in-depth understanding of the issue.

New Reporting Requirements for Federal Firearms Licensees on the Southwest Border

Senator Chuck Grassley, Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, gave the following comment after it was announced by the Justice Department that Federal Firearms Licensees along the Southwest Border would be required to report multiple long gun sales. The Judiciary Committee has primary jurisdiction over policy related to the Justice Department. Grassley is also leading an investigation into the risky strategy employed by Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to allow guns to be sold to straw buyers and then watch the guns be transported to third parties without following the guns.

“We’ve learned from our investigation of Fast and Furious that reporting multiple long gun sales would do nothing to stop the flow of firearms to known straw purchasers because many Federal Firearms Dealers are already voluntarily reporting suspicious transactions. In fact, in just the documents we’ve obtained, we are aware of 150 multiple long guns sales associated with the ATF’s Fast and Furious case, and despite the fact that nearly all of these sales were reported in real time by cooperating gun dealers, the ATF watched the guns be transported from known straw purchasers to third parties and then let the guns walk away, often across the border. This makes it pretty clear that the problem isn’t lack of burdensome reporting requirements. The administration’s continued overreach with regulations continues, and is a distraction from its reckless policy to allow guns to walk into Mexico.”

Uncategorized

Melson To Testify According To Report

June 28, 2011 by 1 Comment

The left-leaning on-line news site, The Daily Beast, is reporting that Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley have brokered a deal whereby ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson will cooperate with Senate investigators and testify next month. In exchange, Senator Grassley released the hold he had put on three Department of Justice nominations.

The testimony—expected next month from Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives—was brokered as part of a deal between Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and the committee’s top Republican, Iowa’s Charles Grassley. Grassley and his fellow Republicans were given full access to ATF documents, Melson, and other key witnesses; and in return, Grassley agreed to release three Obama administration nominees he had been blocking, according to correspondence obtained by NEWSWEEK and THE DAILY BEAST.

Grassley had been fighting to get full access for months. He finally got it with a letter Leahy wrote to Attorney General Eric Holder requesting access for both his staff and Grassley’s investigators to the evidence and witnesses in the gun-sting investigation. In return, Grassley agreed to let proceed the nominations of Jim Cole to be deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco to be assistant attorney general for national security, and Virginia Seitz to be head of the Office of Legal Counsel, the letter shows.

 Melson has been resisting pressure to resign claiming that he had done no wrong in Project Gunwalker and that it had been approved in DOJ. Rep. Darrell Issa and others have flatly stated that the approval goes to the highest levels of the Justice Department.

As head of the agency that conducted the controversial sting, Melson has faced calls for his resignation. But in private conversations with congressional investigators in recent days, Melson has indicated he does not believe he did anything wrong because he carried out his bosses’ wishes and is eager to testify to describe the full picture, according to sources familiar with those conversations.

Issa, who is among those to previously call for Melson’s ouster, is hopeful the acting ATF director can answer crucial questions about what was known above him. “Director Melson has had a long and distinguished career at the Department of Justice. But in the eyes of the public he is, so far, the highest-ranking official who [knew] about gun walking,” Issa told THE DAILY BEAST over the weekend. “[But] I don’t believe he was the highest-ranking official at Justice who knew about or authorized this operation.

“He may still have an opportunity to set the record straight for his agency and get away from being the focus of demands for accountability. We certainly want to hear his full story and see all the evidence about what happened,” Issa said.

I’m surprised that Senator Leahy went along with the agreement. He has always been fiercely partisan and his cooperation will more than likely lead to more trouble for the Obama Administration. If Attorney General Eric Holder survives Project Gunwalker after Melson’s testimony, I’d be surprised.

Uncategorized

Grassley Threatens Hold On Justice Nominees Over Lack Of Answers On Project Gunwalker

May 26, 2011 by

Senator Chuck Grassley can be like a bulldog when he is after information on governmental wrongdoing. He was the first member of Congress to push for answers on Project Gunwalker and he isn’t stopping.

Both FoxNews and The Hill reported yesterday that Grassley is threatening a “hold” on Justice nominees due to a lack of answers from the Justice Department on Project Gunwalker. As I’ve noted here many times, Senator Grassley has submitted numerous information requests and has gotten little cooperation from the Justice Department.

Currently, Justice nominess for Solicitor General, the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and the head of the National Security Division have passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. These and others could be held up if Senator Grassley puts a hold on them as is his privilege under Senate rules.

From FoxNews:

A Grassley aide told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that three Justice nominees recently sent to the floor could be the first to get caught up in the dispute.

They are Donald Verrilli, nominee for solicitor general; Virginia Seitz, nominee to head the Office of Legal Counsel; and Lisa Monaco, nominee to head the National Security Division.

“Those would be possibilities,” Grassley spokeswoman Beth Levine said, adding that her boss could put a hold on virtually anybody in line for a job at Justice over his concerns. The three nominees she named just happened to be voted recently out of committee.

“He’s reserving the right to hold up nominees,” Levine said.

From The Hill:

Grassley told The Hill that the DOJ officials have not been forthcoming on his requests for documents. If they continue to be unresponsive, Grassley said, he will hold Obama’s judicial nominations hostage.

“We’re just getting stonewalled,” Grassley said in an interview. “The next step is we’re going to hold up nominations until we get their attention.”

Given the dismissive attitude shown by Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich to these matters, it may well take a blunt weapon like putting holds on all nominees to get his and Eric Holder’s attention.