Patterico's Pontifications

9/20/2012

Lambs Sacrificed in Fast and Furious Scandal

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:41 am



The head of the ATF and a Deputy Assistant Attorney General “resigned” yesterday:

Fourteen federal law enforcement officials — from field agents in Arizona to top managers in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Justice Department in Washington — created a “significant danger to public safety” under Operation Fast and Furious, an investigative report found.

Those officials still employed were referred for possible job discipline for carrying out the gun-trafficking operation that saturated the Southwest border with more than 2,000 illegally purchased firearms.

Less than an hour after the findings were announced Wednesday by the Justice Department inspector general’s office, two of the individuals — Kenneth Melson, the former head of the ATF, and Deputy Assistant Atty. Gen. Jacob Weinstein — announced they were stepping down.

The 18-month investigation, the only independent review of Fast and Furious, concluded that Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. had no prior knowledge of operation, a position he has long held despite intense criticism from Republican lawmakers who earlier voted him in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over some Justice Department documents regarding Fast and Furious.

I thought nobody in the Attorney General’s office knew anything. And it didn’t involve gunwalking. And Holder didn’t know about it until just before a hearing, even though he did.

Oh, well. The lambs are sacrificed. Move on dot org. Nothing to see here.


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