The acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has not become a maverick who has struck out on his own to defend himself against allegations concerning a bungled gun smuggling operations, his personal attorney said Thursday.
Richard Cullen of McGuireWoods LLP says too much has been made out of Kenneth Melson’s decision to be interviewed by congressional investigators earlier this week concerning the controversial ATF gun smuggling operation called “Fast and Furious.”
In an interview with Main Justice Thursday, Cullen said Melson’s interview with investigators for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on July 4 focused only on telling ATF’s side of the story and that everything was done according to department rules.
“What drove the interview was that Mr. Melson wanted very strongly to be able to represent ATF and tell ATF’s story to the congressional committees as soon as possible,” Cullen said.
Cullen came with Melson to the interview, led by Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). In it, Melson admitted that ATF had made mistakes with the operation and told investigators that DOJ higher-ups had known about them in April of this year, as well as broad communications bungles by several agencies regarding Fast and Furious, according to a letter written by Issa and Grassley.
Cullen said Melson never indicated higher-ups knew about the operation before April.
Melson came under sharp criticism last month – including comments made by Issa that he should step down – for the ATF’s role in Fast and Furious, which allegedly approved the sale of firearms to straw purchasers and allowed them to be trafficked to Mexico.
The Wall Street Journal even reported in June that the Justice Department was taking steps to oust Melson amid the growing scandal, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
Melson’s potential replacement, Andrew Traver, who was nominated to head ATF by President Barack Obama last year, met with Attorney General Eric Holder and Deputy Attorney General James Cole soon after the reports began.
But Cullen rejected any apparent rift between Melson and the department.
“I don’t think this is a question of breaking away at all,” he said. “The committee … asked him to come in, and it was totally proper procedure under the department’s own rules.”
Cullen said that congressional Republicans and the DOJ have made too much out of Melson’s decision to appear before investigators with personal counsel rather than DOJ lawyers, and that both sides had blown the decision out of proportion in a series of letters sent earlier this week. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich even questioned in a letter why Issa and Grassley had failed to mention a three-hour interview that was not transcribed as part of the formal testimony.
But Cullen said that time was “more of a meeting than a deposition,” used to brief congressional staffers about the nature of Melson’s testimony before he gave it.
“I don’t think it would have changed one bit whether I was there or whether a DOJ lawyer was,” Cullen said. “That speculation is really not on target.”
