US Representative Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley must have had an interesting chat with ATF’s acting director Kenneth Melson on July 4th. This in regards to ATF’s “Fast and Furious” gun walking scheme that allowed thousand of wepons to end up in the hands of the Mexican drug cartel…and two of those “walked” guns were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry south of Tucson.

On July 11th Issa and Grassley sent the following letter to Attorney General Eric Holder:

July 11, 2011

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Attorney General Holder:

As our investigation into 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, Office 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 Carwile, Section Chief, Capital 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.

Darrell Issa Chairman
House Committee on
Oversight and Government Reform

Charles E. Grassley Ranking Member
Senate Committee on the Judiciary

cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary

COMMENT: It is getting harder and harder for Holder to claim he knew nothing about Fast and Furious…..

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 13th, 2011 at 3:16 pm and is filed under atf, politics. Tags for this post: atf, atf fast and furious, brian terry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.