Justice Department shrugs off Fast and Furious report
By Richard A. Serrano, Los Angeles Times, July 31, 2012 WASHINGTON--Top Justice Department officials largely dismissed a new House Republican report on the Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation, saying Tuesday that they have moved ahead with major reforms to prevent future incidents of U.S. firearms being lost and smuggled across the border into Mexico.
Further, the attorney for the ATF special agent in charge in Phoenix, who oversaw Fast and Furious, lashed out at Republican congressional leaders, calling their report a "political witch hunt" aimed less at finding fault than pinning Democrats with negative political fallout from Fast and Furious.
The report by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, concluded that five supervisors at the federalBureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were collectively responsible for Fast and Furious, which allowed about 2,500 weapons to be illegally purchased in Arizona.
Fast and Furious was shut down after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was killed in December 2010 and two of the weapons were found nearby. Since then, Holder has reassigned top ATF managers, appointed a federal prosecutor to run the agency and made several other key changes.
Meanwhile, Paul Pelletier, attorney for William D. Newell, the former ATF head in Phoenix, said, "Don't buy all this stuff Issa says," charging that it is politically motivated to tarnish the Obama White House with the Fast and Furious scandal.
But Issa and Grassley stood by their findings. "Many officials at ATF and the Department of Justice," Issa said, "would have preferred to quietly sweep this matter under the rug."