Republican staffers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released sealed documents to the press while conducting their probe of a controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives gun smuggling operation, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), the panel’s ranking Democrat charged Monday.
The staffers for Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) acknowledged releasing the document, but said said they only discovered that the document was sealed after it was released to the press. Justice Department officials met with committee staff on May 5 and told the staffers they had released a document sealed by a federal judge, according to a letter Cummings wrote to Issa.
The letter expressed concern that the committee’s investigation of ATF’s “Fast and Furious” program might interfere with two ongoing criminal probes into the shooting of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry and Mexican drug cartel suspects. “I am trying to ensure that the committee achieves its goal in a responsible manner that avoids causing irreparable damage to the prosecution of dozens of defendants,” Cummings wrote.
Cummings also said that Issa’s staff interviewed a potential trial witness against the wishes Justice Department officials, who had asked the committee to try to obtain the needed information from other individuals first. Cummings asked Issa to provide transcripts of that interview, as well as copies of a tape recording provided by a government official who was interviewed by committee staff.
Interviews led staff to a secret audio-tape recording made by a government official of a conversation between the official and another witness questioned by the committee. The official told staff he had also provided a copy of the tape to Sen. Charles Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican who has also been investigating the ATF.
“Since these tapes were recorded by a government official, they potentially could implicate the legal discovery obligations of the department in their ongoing prosecutions,” Cummings wrote. “No member of this committee wants to risk compromising criminal prosecutions involving alleged murderers and gun traffickers for international drug cartels.”
Cummings urged Issa to consult with DOJ officials before making more information public at a committee hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
But at Monday’s hearing, it remained unclear whether Issa would delay releasing documents in order to consult with the department.
“It’s for us to decide whether or not it’s appropriate to hold back,” Issa said Monday. “That ultimately has to be something in which we see enough to know that it may be prudent to delay.”
