Less than two weeks before he resigned in the wake of a failed gun operation, Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke admitted to Justice Department officials that he had leaked a memo that contained damaging details about a whistleblower in the operation.
In an e-mail to the Justice Department’s Inspector General’s office, first reported by NPR Tuesday, Burke said he had leaked a memo about John Dodson, who Republicans say has been a whistleblower in Operation Fast and Furious. Republicans have said that leaking the memo was a violation of the Privacy Act and laws that prohibit retaliation against whistleblowers. They have said that the leak is being investigated by the DOJ Office of Professional Responsibility. as well as the department’s Inspector General.
Burke’s attorneys, in the e-mail, posted by Politico, said Burke had told the IG he was the source of the leak on Aug. 16; he announced his resignation on Aug. 30.
Burke’s attorneys say Burke gave the memo to a reporter he had known for some time and that it appeared that the reporter already had the memo or had had it read to him.
“Dennis’s intention was to give context to information that the reporter already had to explain that investigations similar to Operation Fast and Furious had been previously proposed by ATF. The investigation proposed by Agent Dodson was closed, and the memo did not contain any Grand Jury or otherwise classified information,” the e-mail from Lee Stein of Perkins Coie states.
The leak of the memo provoked a strong exchange at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, as Attorney General Eric Holder, responding to a question from Sen. Charles Grassley (Iowa), ranking Republican on the committee, lamented the fact that the leak and its source were being discussed in public. During the hearing, Holder declined to identify the source of the leak, saying that an investigation is continuing.
This is just the latest development in the fall of a U.S. Attorney who just earlier this year was thought to have a bright political future in his home state. In February, when Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) announced he would not run for reelection in 2012, Burke’s name surfaced as a possible Democratic nominee for the seat.
Burke’s office was geting widespread publicity since it was handling the prosecution of Jared Lee Loughner, the man charged with the Tucson shooting rampage that resulted in six deaths and the serious wounding of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot in the head.
Burke had experience in the political arena. Before becoming the state’s top federal prosecutor, Burke spent years working for Janet Napolitano, first as chief deputy and a special assistant attorney general during her tenure as state attorney general, then as her chief of staff when she was Arizona governor and finally as a senior adviser on border security when she became secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
In the 1990s Burke worked on Capitol Hill and in the Bill Clinton White House, and served brief stints at Main Justice as a special counsel and later acting head of the Office of Legislative Affairs. During that time period he also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Arizona.
Then, along came revelations about Operation 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. House Government Oversight and Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) Grassley are conducting their own probe, as is the IG.
Burke’s office had supervised Fast and Furious.
On Aug. 30, Burke resigned as U.S. Attorney, as part of a DOJ shakeup over the failed operation. “United States Attorney Dennis Burke has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney’s office, first as a line prosecutor over a decade ago and more recently as United States Attorney,” Holder said, in a statement at the time.
In a statement Tuesday, Grassley said he is not satisfied that Burke acted alone in leaking the document. “Leaking sensitive documents to the press and retaliating against whistleblowers is not good faith cooperation with Congress,” he said. “The Justice Department confirmed that the Inspector General continues to investigate the leak which means there are others who may be involved in drafting and distributing the talking points and document to the press. The Justice Department should not be allowed to continue scapegoating the one person who has resigned. We’re in contact with Mr. Burke’s attorneys and will continue to seek additional information about the document leak and retaliatory talking points.”
