Senate Judiciary Committee Oversight Hearing with Attorney General Eric Holder, Nov. 8, 2011
Hernandez and the Mukasey Memo
Senator Schumer: "I am going to go back to the Fast and Furious issue. There has been, of course, a lot of focus on the present administration's dealings with Fast and Furious. But what has been sort of missing certainly in the House investigation is that it didn't start with the Obama administration. It started with Alberto Gonzales and then continued with General Mukasey."
"As we learned last week, some briefing material on Operation Wide Receiver, the - the Bush era version of Fast and Furious, was prepared for the - Attorney General Mukasey shortly after he took office, in preparation for a November 16th meeting with Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora of Mexico."
The memo Senator Schumer referenced is about the Hernandez investigation, not Operation Wide Receiver. The Justice Department has not produced any document that indicates Attorney General Gonzales or Attorney General Mukasey received any memos on Operation Wide Receiver. The Justice Department has produced one November 16, 2007, memo to Attorney General Mukasey which refers to the controlled delivery in the Hernandez case. It does not refer to walking guns. It does not refer to the Wide Receiver case.
As the November 16, 2007, memo states: "ATF has recently worked jointly with Mexico on the first ever attempt to have a controlled delivery of weapons being smuggled into Mexico by a major arms trafficker. While the first attempts at this controlled have not been successful, the investigation is ongoing, and ATF would like to expand the possibility of such joint investigations and controlled deliveries - since only then will it be possible investigate an entire smuggling network, rather than arresting simply a single smuggler. To that end, it is essential that a vetted Mexican unit be assigned to work with ATF in this regard. ATF's attache in Mexico City has briefed General Medina Mora on this attempted controlled delivery, and stressed the importance of such a vetted unit being assigned."
In contrast, no attempt was made to work with the government of Mexico in Operation Fast and Furious. It is unclear whether such an attempt was made in Operation Wide Receiver.
Documents supporting the FACTS.
