Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says

FoxNews.com ^ | July 6, 2011 | By William Lajeunesse

[topher]

Justice Department Obstructing 'Fast and Furious' Gun Probe, ATF Director Says

By William Lajeunesse

The Justice Department is obstructing the congressional investigation of a U.S. law enforcement operation intended to crack down on major weapons traffickers on the Southwest border, according to the embattled leader of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Ken Melson, the acting director of the ATF, lobbed the accusation when he sneaked in for an interview with congressional investigators on July 4, two days ahead of his scheduled interview with the inspector general about the operation known as "Fast and Furious," Fox News has learned.

"If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand," Rep. Darrell Issa, chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter Tuesday to Attorney General Eric Holder. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."

The Justice Department is reportedly looking to oust Melson, who has been acting ATF director since April 2009, as the agency deals with its biggest scandal in nearly two decades. Andrew Traver, who was tapped in November by President Obama to become the permanent ATF director, could be named as acting director until the Senate acts on his nomination, sources have said.

[TigersEye]

30 other ATF agents have been terminated?????

That is what Vince Cefalu said in that interview. Today it comes out that an FBI agent was actively guiding a straw buyer for the cartels and ATF knew nothing about it. DoJ is in this deep.

[antiRepublicrat]

“However, he said that Justice Department officials directed them not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress.”

Wonderful quote. I do believe that is illegal.

[1010RD]

Obama = Carter³ x Nixon³

[TigersEye]

This is an international incident that will not be swept under the rug by Holder/Obama, their politics and their cover up.

A BIG international incident.

0bama Arms Mexican Drug Cartels - Dept. of Justice Involved In Coverup!

[Nachum]

‘Sounds like Melson has them by the short ones.’

Does he?

I am never sure anymore. My first reaction is that ‘they’ will find some way to get to him. A good time to brush up on the Obama ‘Deadpool’

http://www.nachumlist.com/deadpool.htm

[NonValueAdded]

Whoa, looks like the buck isn’t going to stop with Melson. I guess news of his resignation 1) was premature 2) was probably news to Melson. Duck and cover, DoJ, the chitstorm is coming in your direction.

[reefdiver]

Democrats: not liked in Mexico, a good portion of America and wherever real work has to be completed on time.

This fiasco will follow zer0 to the election

one of our contenders should promise to hold the responsible party accountable, that would go a long way

[nina0113]

He needs to stay away from Ft. Marcy Park.

[tutstar]

heads need to roll

[ohioWfan]

Criminals are running the country.

PRAY for AMERICA! There will be justice in the end.

[Fantasywriter]

Whoa—that is quite a list! Somehow I don’t think Melson will fold. Time will tell. Thuggery works up to a point, but even in the USSR it had its limits. Here, it’s even harder to govern via thuggery indefinitely. Maybe Melson is the breaking point. I hope so!

[nina0113]

I wonder when the MSM will notice it?

I'll take Jan 22nd, 2013 if there's a pool.

[topher]

Another Thread on this on Freerepublic [source is Townhall.com]:

Scandal Grows: FBI, DEA Involved With Operation Fast and Furious

[1066AD]

During the meeting, President Obama dropped in and, according to Sarah Brady, brought up the issue of gun control, “to fill us in that it was very much on his agenda,” she said. “I just want you to know that we are working on it,” Brady recalled the president telling them. “We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.”

[Gothmog]

The letter from Issa and Grassley linked to above notes that political appointee “Marshall Jarret” is involved in all of this.

Anyone else thinking “Valerie Jarret”?

[topher]

I wonder when the MSM will notice it?

It is not the MSM, it is the LSM -- Lame Stream Media.

Maybe the Mainstream Media is:

Michelle Malkin
FoxNews
Rush Limbaugh
Drudgereport

Which, by the way, this seems to be under Matt's radar currently -- in terms of this story...

[Matt must be slowing down in his old age...]

[Mariner]

"head of ATF say there is obstruction of Justice. "

When will the NYT and WAPO cover this?

It's hugh.

[BuckeyeTexan]

In 2007 the NYT published an op-ed entitled "He's Impeachable, You know" about U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

Impeachment is in bad odor in these post-Clinton days. It needn’t be. Though provoked by individual misconduct, the power to impeach is at bottom a tool granted Congress to defend the constitutional order.

(...)

A cabinet officer, like a judge or a president, may be impeached only for commission of “high crimes and misdemeanors.” But as the Nixon and Clinton impeachment debates reminded us, that constitutional phrase embraces not only indictable crimes but “conduct ... grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government.”

If Attorney General Holder's conduct in not "grossly incompatible with the office held and subversive of that office and of our constitutional system of government," then there is no such concept.

[BuckeyeTexan]

And the money line from that op-ed:

The real question is whether Republicans and Democrats are prepared to defend the constitutional authority of Congress against the implicit claim of an administration that it can do what it pleases and, when called to account, send an attorney general of the United States to Capitol Hill to commit amnesia on its behalf.

[Spktyr]

It qualifies for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ - providing arms to rebels against an ally’s duly elected representative government is considered just cause for war.