Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. today fired back at critics who contend he concealed information from Congress earlier this year about his knowledge of the controversial gun trafficking investigation dubbed Operation Fast and Furious.
Addressing the recent criticism in a letter (.pdf) today to members of Congress, Holder defended his testimony in May before the House Oversight Committee, calling his statements about the gun program truthful and accurate.
Republican critics contend Holder knew more about the ATF program—which allowed straw purchasers to buy guns in the U.S. that ended up in the hands of criminals in Mexico—well before he declared in testimony that he had only recently learned about the failed operation. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this week pointed to memos the attorney general received last year.
“In the past few days, some have pointed to documents that we provided to Congress as evidence that I was familiar with Fast and Furious earlier than I have testified,” Holder said in today’s letter. “That simply is not the case and those suggestions mischaracterize the process by which I receive information concerning the activities of the Department’s many components.”
Holder said his office receives more than 100 pages of “weekly reports” that are provided to members of staff for review even though the pages are addressed to him. He said the summaries provided to his front office don't “say anything about the unacceptable tactics” at the ATF.
“As attorney general I am not and cannot be familiar with the operational details of any particular investigation being conducted in an ATF field office unless those details are brought to my attention,” Holder said. “That did not happen with Fast and Furious until the public controversy arose in 2011.”
Holder said “the fact that even a single gun was not interdicted in this operation and found its way to Mexico is unacceptable.” Too many members of Congress, the attorney general continued, are opposed “to any discussion of fixing loopholes in our laws that facilitate the staggering flow of guns each year across our border to the south.”
The Fast and Furious operation, Holder said in the letter, was a “fundamentally flawed” response to the problem of gun trafficking on the Southwest border. The effects of the botched investigation, he said, will be felt for years. Investigators continue to find illegally smuggled weapons at crime scenes in the United States and in Mexico.
“This is both tragic and completely unacceptable,” Holder said.
Updated 8:51 p.m.
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