Two DOJ officials ousted and 14 others face disciplinary action - but attorney general UNSCATHED - in massive report on Operation Fast and Furious
Two top officials at the Department of Justice were ousted from their
jobs today but Attorney General Eric Holder was ruled blameless by a
damning report that uncovered a catalog or errors in judgement in the
Fast and Furious gun-trafficking scandal.
Two senior officials left the department, one by resignation and one by
retirement, upon release of the 471-page internal report.
Its author, Inspector General Michael Horowitz, also referred 14 people
for possible department disciplinary action for their roles in Operation
Fast and Furious and a separate, earlier probe known as Wide Receiver,
undertaken during the George W Bush administration.
Escape: Attorney General Eric Holder was cleared of any wrongdoing in
the Fast and Furious probe, but the report found that he should have
been briefed on the investigation
Gunrunners: Some 1,400 of the 2,000 guns lost in Operation Fast and Furious are yet to be recovered
The high risk operation saw guns being allowed to be purchased by
Mexican gangsters and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives
agents were supposed to track them to higher level drug cartel members
and catch the bigger fish red-handed.
But, it backfired and resulted in hundreds of weapons turning up at crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico.
And in the worst failure U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was
gunned down in December 2010 with two guns that agents had been trying
to track.
Terry's murder was the catalyst that began the internal probe into the
gun operation after two of the 2,000 weapons thought to have been
acquired by illicit buyers were found at the murder scene.
About 1,400 of the total are yet to be recovered.
No criminal charges were recommended in the report.
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Victim: U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was
gunned down with one of the weapons used in
Operation Fast and Furious in December 2010
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The documents did not criticise Holder, but said lower-level officials
should have briefed him about the investigation much earlier.
Investigators found that Holder didn't know anything about Fast and Furious until late January/early
February and found no evidence that that the attorney general was told
about the much-disputed 'gun-walking' tactic employed by the
department's Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The inspector general found fault with the work of the senior ATF
leadership, the ATF staff and U.S. attorney's office in Phoenix and
senior officials of Justice's criminal division in Washington.
He also said that poor internal information-gathering and drafting at
Justice and ATF caused the department to initially misinform Congress
about Fast and Furious.
One of those criticized in the report, former ATF acting director
Kenneth Melson, who headed that office during the Fast and Furious
investigation, retired upon release of the report.
'Melson made too many assumptions about the ase,' the report stated.
'Melson should have asked basic questions about the investigation,
including how public safety was being protected.'
Another of those criticized, Justice Department career attorney Jason Weinstein, resigned.
Weinstein was a deputy assistant attorney general in Justice's criminal division in Washington.
'Weinstein was the most senior person in the department in April and May
2010 who was in a position to identify the similarity between the
inappropriate tactics used in Operations Wide Receiver and Fast and
Furious,' the report said.
Weinstein's lawyer, Michael Bromwich, called the report's criticism 'profoundly wrong' and 'deeply flawed.'
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