Tuesday, January 31, 2011
Senator Chuck Grassley issued the following statement after the minority staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released a report excusing senior level Justice Department officials from responsibility for Operation Fast and Furious.
Grassley started conducting oversight of the flawed program more than one year ago. The Justice Department and Attorney General Eric Holder initially denied gunwalking occurred, but have since withdrawn the denials and admitted that ATF whistlebowers were right to complain about the reckless tactic. Despite the constitutional responsibility of Congress to conduct oversight of the executive branch, the Justice Department has stonewalled every step of Grassley's investigation. In fact, the Justice Department has provided 80,000 pages of documents to the Inspector General, but has provided only 6,000 pages of documents to Congress. Yet, the department has provided no explanation for withholding each of those 74,000 pages.
"The idea that senior political appointees have clean hands in these gunwalking scandals doesn't pass the laugh test, especially considering we've seen less than 10 percent of the pages that the Justice Department has provided the Inspector General. They ignored the warning signs and failed to put a stop to it or hold anyone accountable. Lanny Breuer is a senior political appointee, and he admits to knowing about gunwalking as early as April 2010. Documents turned over late Friday night indicate he was still discussing plans to let guns cross the border with Mexican officials on the same day the Department denied to me in writing that ATF would ever let guns walk. He stood mute as this administration fought tooth and nail to keep any of this information from coming out for a year. It will take a lot more than a knee-jerk defense from their political allies in Congress to restore public trust in the leadership of the Justice Department. The American people want to see those who failed to act be held accountable.
