Politics

Murdered border patrol agent’s family says Holder ‘should accept responsibility’

Matthew Boyle Investigative Reporter
Font Size:

Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s family broke its silence on Wednesday, and is now calling on Attorney General Eric Holder to admit he’s at fault for Operation Fast and Furious.

Terry was murdered with Operation Fast and Furious weapons on December 15, 2010 — nearly a year ago — and Holder refused to apologize to his family during his Senate Judiciary Committee appearance on Tuesday.

“Mr. Holder needs to own Operation Fast and Furious,” Terry’s family said in a statement. “In the end, Mr. Holder may chose not to apologize to the Terry family for the role that ATF and DOJ played in the death of Brian Terry, but the Attorney General should accept responsibility immediately. It is without question, the right thing to do.”

Terry’s family has remained virtually silent until now. This is the first major statement relatives of the Fast and Furious victim have ever made. (SCANDAL BUILDS: Former Ariz. US Attorney admits leaking memo smearing Fast and Furious whistle-blower)

The family of the fallen agent added that even if Holder didn’t know guns were allowed to “walk,” or be trafficked into Mexico via straw purchasers, the Attorney General should have known. Straw purchasers are people who could legally purchase weapons in the United States but did so with the known intention of trafficking them into Mexico.

“The Attorney General has said that he did not know about the flawed tactics being used by ATF in Operation Fast and Furious; if this is true and he did not know, then he should have known,” Terry’s family said. “After all, he is the Attorney General of the United States and the head of the Department of Justice under which ATF belongs.”

During that Tuesday hearing, Holder said “it’s unfair to assume that mistakes from Fast and Furious directly led to the death of Agent Terry.” (WHIP COUNT: 36 members of Congress want Eric Holder’s immediate resignation)

Holder’s top deputy, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer — the head of the DOJ’s Criminal Division — previously told Congress that “the tragic truth is that if those criminals who killed Agent Terry had not gotten the guns from this one source, they would have gotten the gun from another source.”

Terry’s family is appalled by those deflections of responsibility and specifically calls Holder and Breuer out for making those statements. “The fact of the matter is that the men who killed Brian Terry were armed with brand new military grade assault weapons and ammunition,” Terry’s family said. “The weapons were allowed to be purchased with the full approval of ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona; both agencies falling under the control of the Attorney General.”

The family asks for President Barack Obama to follow through on his promises of transparency and accountability with Operation Fast and Furious. Terry’s family hopes Obama holds Holder accountable for Fast and Furious.

“President Obama has spoken often about the need for transparency in our government,” the family said. “Furthermore, the President, when referring to Operation Fast and Furious, has said, ‘People who screwed up will be held accountable.’”

“Well, we know who screwed up: they were ATF supervisors in the Phoenix Field Office who thought up and initiated this plan, ATF Headquarters executives who allowed it to continue, and officials in the Department of Justice who didn’t put a stop to it when they had the opportunity,” Terry’s family added. “Operation Fast and Furious and the way that DOJ and ATF have handled both the actual investigation and its aftermath are excellent examples of the precise need for transparency and accountability.”

Two Scottsdale, Arizona businesswomen are organizing a fundraiser for Terry’s family in Scottsdale, Arizona on November 12.

Follow Matthew on Twitter

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel