The nominee for Justice Department inspector general Wednesday sought to assure senators that he would vigorously pursue an investigation into a troubled DOJ gun operation, even though he has known some officials at the center of the controversy for more than a decade.
“I intend, if confirmed, to pursue every avenue,” Michael E. Horowitz said during his Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing, discussing an ongoing investigation into the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation known as Fast and Furious.
The IG’s office currently is investigating Fast and Furious, which allegedly resulted in the selling of at least 2,000 firearms to drug cartel members in Arizona via straw buyers. The ATF then allegedly permitted the guns to be trafficked to Mexico, where the bureau lost track of them. Two guns from the operation were recovered in December at the scene of a shootout between Border Patrol agents and Mexican bandits near Rio Rico, Ariz., that resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian A. Terry. Other guns sold during the operation have been linked to violent crime scenes in Mexico. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Government Oversight and Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) are conducting their own probe.
Grassley on Wednesday expressed concern about whether Horowitz’s long relationship with DOJ criminal division chief Lanny Breuer might interfere with his investigation. Congressional investigators, citing e-mails, contend that Breuer knew about Fast and Furious, but did not stop it.
Horowitz said he first met Breuer sometime after 1999, but said that relationship would have no impact on any investigation.
Asked how he would react if someone attempted to restrain his independence, Horowitz answered, “I presumably would quit.”
Horowitz is currently a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, where he focuses on white collar defense, international investigations and regulatory compliance.
He has more than a decade of experience as a top DOJ official and federal prosecutor, having worked from 1999 to 2002 as Deputy Assistant Attorney General and then as chief of staff for the DOJ’s Criminal Division. Before that, Horowitz served for eight years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York, overseeing the Public Corruption Unit from 1997 to 1999.
He also served as a commissioner for the U.S. Sentencing Commission from 2003 to 2009, and is a board member of the Ethics Resource Center, the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics and the Lawyers Committee For Civil Rights Under Law.
He would replace the acting Inspector General Cynthia A. Schedar, who has held the position since January. Before her, Glenn A. Fine held the office for 10 years as President Bill Clinton’s appointee.
