As for Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer — the head of DOJ’s criminal division — the IG report found that he learned in April 2010 “about Operation Wide Receiver and that ATF had allowed guns to ‘walk’ in that case.”
“Breuer told us that upon learning this information, he told Deputy Assistant Attorney General Weinstein to talk to ATF leadership to make sure that they understood that the Criminal Division planned to move forward with the case, but that the investigation had used ‘obviously flawed’ techniques,” the IG report reads. “Given the significance of this issue and the fact that ATF reports to the deputy attorney general, we believe Breuer should have promptly informed the deputy attorney general or the attorney general about the matter in April 2010. Breuer failed to do so.”
Congressional investigators come down much harder on Breuer, many of them saying that he is responsible for a false letter that denied gunwalking being sent to Sen. Chuck Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011. The Obama administration has since withdrawn that letter.
Also, the IG report concluded that Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein “was the most senior person in the department in April and May 2010 who was in a position to identify the similarity between the inappropriate tactics used in Operations Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious.”
Though Weinstein has now resigned his position, it took more than a year-and-a-half and the release of the inspector general report for him to step down. During the time since Holder became aware of Fast and Furious — February 2011, according to the IG — and now, Holder was almost certainly aware of Weinstein’s role. Holder’s failure to take action over that time directly contradicts Obama’s statement that he took “prompt action.”
Others listed in the inspector general report have also not been disciplined.
Obama’s interview response that his administration has released “almost all of” the Fast and Furious documents is also questionable.
The Justice Department — despite having been subpoenaed by Congress — has provided just under 8,000 pages of Fast and Furious documents to congressional investigators. His administration provided more than 100,000 pages worth of documents to the internal DOJ inspector general, but the inspector general Horowitz testified before the House oversight committee on Thursday that the White House and Department of Homeland Security have refused to provide his team with documents and access to key Fast and Furious officials.
Holder and Obama withholding the tens of thousands of pages of documents from Congress is why some Democrats joined Republicans this summer and voted to hold Holder in criminal and civil contempt of Congress.
