The Justice Department knew about a controversial gun smuggling operation and failed to stop it, House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) charged Wednesday, threatening to hold DOJ officials in contempt of Congress if they don’t produce documents he has subpoenaed.
Issa said e-mails and reports he obtained indicate that DOJ officials knew about “Project Gunrunner” and “Operation Fast and Furious,” which allowed guns to fall into the hands of Mexican drug cartels in an effort to track them. A letter from Issa Wednesday to Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, included e-mails last year from ATF Phoenix Supervisor David Voth about the program and reports related to suspicious gun buyers and the firearms they bought.
The Republican House member accused Melson of stonewalling his probe and threatened to initiate contempt of Congress proceedings against him if documents relating to the operation were not sent to him.
“The Department’s internal policy to withhold documents from what it labels pending criminal investigations may not deprive Congress from obtaining those documents if they are pertinent to a congressional investigation – particularly in a matter involving allegations that the reckless and inappropriate decisions by top Justice Department officials may have contributed to the deaths of U.S. and Mexican citizens,” Issa wrote.
An ATF spokeswoman declined to comment to Main Justice. A DOJ spokeswoman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Committee ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) also had no immediate comment.
“It is nearly unfathomable that our government would allow straw purchasers to illegally acquire automatic weapons and transport them into Mexico, in furtherance of an ATF-led and – inspired investigation,” Issa wrote in his letter to Melson. “As I understand Department of Justice operations, such programs would require the approval of top officials.”
President Barack Obama has said neither he nor Holder consented to “Operation Fast and Furious.” Holder told Congress in March that he informed DOJ officials that allowing firearms to “walk” is unacceptable. DOJ officials have said the Department’s Office of Inspector General is investigating the ATF gun smuggling policies.
The DOJ permitted the committee to review four documents related to the program at a private meeting at Department headquarters prior to the subpoena deadline. Issa was not satisfied.
“These documents were quite general and largely unhelpful as none of them directly pertain to Operation Fast and Furious,” Issa wrote in the letter to Melson. “This is not surprising considering that the Department of Justice believes it is ‘not in a position to disclose such documents, nor can [DOJ] confirm or deny the existence of records in [its] ongoing investigative files.’ ” (Issa quoted an April 8 letter he received from Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich of the DOJ Office of Legislative Affairs.)
Issa wrote that Weich made “vague assertions” in an April 13 letter to Issa that explained why DOJ was not turning over subpoenaed documents. But the Assistant Attorney General did not make an executive privilege claim that would allow the DOJ to refuse to comply with the subpoena.
The chairman subpoenaed DOJ for records about the murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, whose body was found near two firearms traced to the program. ATF documents obtained by his committee and included in the letter to Melson show Jaime Avila, who has been charged with buying firearms found at the scene of Terry’s December murder, bought two AK-47 rifles in early 2010 that were recovered in the investigation of the agent’s death.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), who is also probing the program, has asked whether ATF operations led to the shooting of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata, who was killed in Mexico in February. Agent Victor Avila Jr., who was with Zapata during the shooting, was wounded.
Last week, Grassley released e-mails that show that Voth tried to put a gun shop owner at ease over the dealer’s participation in the program and arranged meetings to discuss his worries.
The ATF program made it possible for suspected smugglers to buy 1,765 firearms, 797 of which were recovered in Mexico and the United States after they were used in crimes. Of those crime guns, 195 were recovered in Mexico.
UPDATE
Cummings on Wednesday expressed frustration with Issa’s threat to hold DOJ officials in contempt of Congress if they don’t produce documents he has subpoenaed.
“Our Committee has a responsibility to investigate allegations of waste, fraud and abuse,” Cummings said in a statement. “However, despite my repeated requests, Chairman Issa has refused to meet with the Department of Justice to ensure that his actions do not compromise ongoing investigations and prosecutions, including a trial of 20 individuals that is scheduled to begin in June.”
