Saying 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.) threatened Wednesday to try to hold DOJ officials in contempt of Congress if they don’t produce documents he has subpoenaed.

Issa said he has documents indicating that DOJ officials knew about “Project Gunrunner” and “Operation Fast and Furious.”  He accused Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 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. Main Justice will be updating this story.

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