© 2011 POLITICO LLC
Posted on 09/22/2011 1:02:42 PM PDT by neverdem
Two top Republicans looking into the bungled “Fast and Furious” gun operation have accused the Department of Justice’s Inspector General of undermining their investigation.
The Justice Department’s “Fast and Furious” gun program targeted Mexican drug cartels but ended up inadvertently supplying them with firearms.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Senator Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) send a letter to DOJ - first reported by Fox News - that accused the department’s Inspector General, Cynthia Schnedar, of compromising their investigation by releasing secret tape recordings to targets of their probe.
“Each of these disclosures undermines our ability to assess the candor of witnesses in our investigation and thus obstructs it,” wrote the two Republicans in a letter dated Tuesday. “Moreover, your decision to immediately disclose the recordings to those you are investigating creates at least the appearance, if not more, that your inquiry is not sufficiently objective and independent.
The DOJ Inspector General argues it was required to turn the tapes over to the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the Department of Justice under the legal rules of discovery.
Both Congress and the DOJ Inspector General are conducting investigations into the department’s role in the gun program. Issa and Grassley are concerned that releasing the tapes to the U.S. Attorney’s Office - a potential target in their investigation - might obstruct their inquiries.
The tapes Issa and Grassley are referring to were recorded by Andre Howard, a firearms dealer who was recruited by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to sell arms to a Mexican cartel. On two occasions, Howard recorded Hope MacAllister, the lead agent in the Fast and Furious case.
Howard’s lawyer, Larry Gaydos, said that Howard was recording MacAllister in an effort to implicate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the gun-running scheme.
Schnedar did not even listen to the recordings before handing them over, say the two Republicans.
Issa and Grassley said the Inspector General’s disclosure represented an obstruction to their investigation of the Department of Justice.
“It appears that you did not consider the significant harm that providing these recordings to the very individuals under investigation could cause to either our inquiry or your own,” they wrote.
The 2009 “Fast and Furious” operation involved ATF agents who tracked purchases of guns and allowed them cross from the United States into Mexico in hopes that the weapons would lead them to major weapons traffickers and drug cartel leaders. Instead, hundreds of rifles and other guns ended up in the hands of the cartels, and the operation was unsuccessful.
In fact, weapons linked to the program were later involved in the December 2010 shooting death of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.
© 2011 POLITICO LLC |
Actually I think at this point it is certain that it was done by design.
It is not possible to prove that to a point of absolute fact simply because the Obama gang has obstructed every probe so far.
Historically, Republicans have been more concerned to get Democrat scandals covered up than have been the Democrats. The basic problem is an insoluble one. Republicans do not believe that Republicans are legitimate. Democrats are felt to be the Rightful Rulers, the True King and Republicans think they only exist to clean up the mess when the Democrats go overboard with the economy. 50 years ago Republicans thought their primary function was to raise taxes to pay for the Democrat spending. Well, the ideas on taxes have changed but not the underlying concept. Republicans don’t, at bottom, feel they have the right to rule. That is a Democrat function but Republicans have to occasionally put the state’s control of everything on a more businesslike path and have to straighten out the Rightful King’s flounderings in foreign policy.
Nice job. Looks like he’s reaching for his junk. Probably hung around with Weiner too much.
If I were a Democrat in the department of Justice and helping in the cover up, I would ask myself the following question. If Obama does not win the next election and Congress is no longer controlled by Democrats what are the odds that I will go to jail for obstruction of justice, and perjury?
If I were a Democrat in the department of Justice and helping in the cover up, I would ask myself the following question. If Obama does not win the next election and Congress is no longer controlled by Democrats what are the odds that I will go to jail for obstruction of justice, and perjury?
I think that is not a problem. Once the Republicans are in charge they will drop the investigations or will let them peter out. Republicans are normally more enthusiastic in covering up Democrat scandals than Democrats are (and, of course, highly enthusiastic about exposing and atoning for Republican scandals). Issa and Grassley are making their colleagues terribly uncomfortable right now. Republicans have always been comfortable with Left Democrat staffing and control of the bureaucracy and, on accession to the presidency, do not weed out the communists, socialists and Democrat thieves in the departments. Your DOJ perps are mostly safe and won’t even lose their jobs after a change in administration. Democrats, on the other hand, do a wholesale housecleaning of the bureaucracy as a first order of business. That is one reason the leftward charge can not be stemmed, only briefly slowed a little.
Your last post was way too close to the truth.
The thing is I just don’t understand it.
What you say is true of RINOs, and is a defining characteristic of RINOs: their whole political identity revolves around the existence of Democrats as a viable supposed opponent. Without Democrats, RINOs would have no political reason to exist.
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