The Justice Department has largely brushed off findings of a Republican congressional report that details part of its 18-month investigation into the botched gun-walking operation Fast and Furious.
Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler called the Republican report rife with “distortions and now-debunked conspiracy theories.”
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) (photo by House Oversight)
“[It] reiterates many of the distortions and now-debunked conspiracy theories that Rep. [Darrell] Issa has been advancing for a year and a half, including the fiction that the flawed tactics used in Fast and Furious were somehow the brainchild of the current administration as opposed to the reality that the pattern of flawed tactics dates back to 2006 and the prior administration,” Schmaler said in an Associated Press report.
The congressional report, released Tuesday by Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) details the failed gun-tracking operation that has been under congressional scrutiny for the past 18 months. It pinpoints five senior agents within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who the lawmaker’s contend are culpable for the botched investigation. A second report is expected to focus on the roles played by high-level Justice Department officials.
