Friday, December 2, 2011

Traditional Friday Night DOJ Docu-Dump a whopping 1400 pages. Blaming Arizona. Don't look at us, DOJ sez. "Willing stooges for the Gun Lobby."

NPR: Justice Withdraws Inaccurate 'Fast And Furious' Letter It Sent To Congress.

Under fire for losing track of weapons that turned up at crime scenes along the Southwest border, the Justice Department has taken the extraordinary step of formally withdrawing an inaccurate letter about the episode that it sent to Congress earlier this year.

Deputy Attorney General Jim Cole sent nearly 1,400 pages of emails and other documents to Capitol Hill late Friday afternoon that lay bare the raw and sometimes cringe-worthy process by which the letter was drafted. The materials contain clues into how misleading information about the botched gun trafficking operation made it into a Feb. 4, 2011 letter to Congress that department leaders have since acknowledged was false. . .

Here are a few of the new disclosures contained in the documents:

— The basis for the inaccurate statements in the letter appears to have originated among people in the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona and among ATF officials earlier this year, according to the new letter to Congress. Notes taken by a Justice Department legislative affairs person who helped prepare a response to Congress include statements that found their way into the faulty Feb. 4 letter, including: "ATF doesn't let guns walk" and "we always try to interdict weapons purchased illegally." Also at the meeting were the ATF's top congressional liaison and a high level deputy named Billy Hoover. At other times, the U.S. Attorney's office in Arizona passed along inaccurate information about the length of the gun trafficking operation and the timing of when guns were purchased.

— Jason Weinstein, a senior aide in the Justice Department's criminal division, played a key role in drafting the February 2011 letter. Weinstein, who had served as a highly regarded prosecutor in Baltimore and New York for a decade before taking a political appointment at the Justice Department, already had come under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers. They say he had approved the use of wiretaps in the Obama administration's Fast and Furious operation and he should have dug deeper. The department has acknowledged that the operation sent as many as 2,000 weapons into Mexico but failed to follow them. Many of those guns later ended up at crime scenes on both sides of the border, including near the body of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

Justice officials say Weinstein relied on the ATF and the U.S. Attorney's Office in drafting the letter.

— Justice Department Criminal Division chief Lanny Breuer received draft copies of the Feb. 4, 2011 letter from Weinstein and forwarded those messages to his personal email account, which he didn't share in recent congressional testimony about questionable ATF tactics in gun cases. However, Breuer writes in new correspondence to Congress Friday that "I cannot say for sure whether I saw a draft of the letter...I have no recollection of having done so and given that I was on official travel that week and given the scope of my duties as Assistant Attorney General, I think it is exceedingly unlikely that I did so." Breuer apologized last month for failing to make a "connection" between out-of-bounds strategies he discovered in a Bush-era case and Fast and Furious.

— Former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, who resigned in August as the gun trafficking scandal intensified, repeatedly urged Justice officials in Washington to "push back" against "categorical falsehoods" coming from whistleblowers inside the ATF and from members of Congress. Burke also had some choice words for Sen. Grassley's staff, which he said were "acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby" and "lobbing this reckless despicable accusation" about ATF. In another message, he tells a colleague that the congressional accusations are "among the lowest acts I have ever seen in politics." Burke may have been relying on aides in his office, who more closely supervised the day to day activities of the ATF in the gun trafficking operation.

"Dennis Burke is a standup guy. He provided what he believed to be accurate information to the Department of Justice, as he always does," said Chuck Rosenberg, an attorney for Burke.

— Drafts of the Feb. 4th letter reached the highest levels of the Justice Department, as aides to the Deputy Attorney General suggested fixes to the language and prodded subordinates to check the facts. In one email chain, a deputy named Lisa Monaco advised against using adjectives such as "categorically" and asked, "why poke the tiger" when it comes to communications with Capitol Hill.


Roll Call: The Burke & Billy Hoover show.

The documents released today show tangential involvement by Breuer in preparing the Feb. 4 letter.

“Let me know what’s happening with this,” he wrote in a Feb. 1 email asking for an update.

Jason Weinstein, Breuer’s deputy, responded by saying he had revised the initial draft, written by Burton, to “make it a little tougher.”

The documents show Weinstein was intimately involved in drafting the letter, urging repeated changes to strengthen the tone of its denial over objections from the Office of Legislative Affairs headed by Weich.

Weinstein was also far more familiar than Breuer with the details of Operation Wide Receiver, according to documents released in October. For instance, Weinstein told colleagues in an April 12, 2010, email that the ATF should be “embarrassed that they let this many guns walk” in Wide Receiver.

According to Breuer, Weinstein is now also expressing regret about not connecting the dots between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious.

“Weinstein has expressed to me that, in hindsight, he wishes he had not relied on those assertions and that, because he did rely so heavily on them, he viewed, incorrectly, the misguided tactics used in Operation Wide Receiver — which resulted in the ATF losing control of guns that then crossed the border into Mexico — as having no relation to the allegations that were being made about Operation Fast and Furious,” Breuer said today in a written statement to Congressional investigators.

The day before the letter was sent to Grassley, the Office of the Deputy Attorney General raised concerns about the scope of the denial it contained.

“In the 2nd full para[graph] — we say ‘categorically false’ — obviously we want to be 300% sure we can make such a ‘categorical’ statement,” Lisa Monaco wrote in an email after reviewing a draft version of the letter. “I’ve developed an aversion to adjectives and oversight letters,” she explained in a later email.

The language was ultimately removed.

Over the course of the letter being prepared, Burke vehemently argued the department should more vigorously deny the allegations.

“What is so offensive about this whole project is that Grassley’s staff, acting as willing stooges for the Gun Lobby, have attempted to distract from the incredible success in dismantling [southwest border] gun trafficking operations ... but, instead, lobbing this reckless despicable accusation that ATF is complicit in the murder of a fellow federal law enforcement officer,” he wrote in a Feb. 4 email.

“Well said Dennis. Thank you!” Hoover replied.

However, guns found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s murder were eventually connected to the Fast and Furious operation.


Burke's anti-gun mindset.

“No commentary by Grassley on the lax laws, nor greedy gun shop owners, nor careless straw purchasers, and not boo about the evil gun traffickers for the Cartels. Nope. Just demonize ATF w/ a strategically-timed repulsive letter e-mailed to the entire press world before we ever saw it,” Burke wrote.

Discussing the Department’s response to a letter that Grassley sent to the agency concerning the allegation that a gun from the ATF was used to kill Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, Burke continued: “I sat there during the press conference on this case wondering how the Gun Lobby would counter the American public’ (sic) exposure to the legality of people buying 20-30 AK-47s during one purchase [with] no reporting requirement. Well, they figured out [their] counter. Never crossed my [mind] they would stoop this low — and now we are playing defense [with] this low-tone response.”


CBS: Justice Dept. Fast and Furious emails show disagreement over response to Grassley

More than 1,000 pages of frenzied email exchanges were fired back and forth among Justice Department officials, as they weighed how to respond to initial inquires about the gunwalker scandal. Today, the agency turned over those subpoenaed records to Congress in advance of a hearing next week with Attorney General Eric Holder.

PICTURES: ATF "Gunwalking" scandal timeline

The emails are marked by intra-office disagreement over how vigorously to defend the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) amid questions from Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. ATF whistleblowers had told Sen. Grassley that their own agency had let thousands of weapons "walk" into the hands of Mexican drug cartels. They also told Grassley that two of the weapons involved in the case, known as "Fast and Furious," were used at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

"Those [allegations] are the most salacious, and the most damaging to ATF, both short-and long-term," writes Deputy Asst. Attorney General Jason Weinstein to Justice Department Special Counsel Faith Burton on Feb. 2, 2011.

Weinstein also wrote ATF Acting Director Ken Melson, calling the gunwalking allegations "terribly damaging to ATF," and pushing for "a more forceful rebuttal" than what the Justice Department was considering.

Read the Internal Justice Department Emails

Additional Justice Department Emails

Special Counsel Burton disagreed, telling Weinstein: "Understand the concerns about pushing back on the Terry issue, but think presents significant risks and we should discuss that together in person if nec."

"What 'risk'?" U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke asked the Justice Department's Weinstein. Burke's office oversaw Fast and Furious.

"They're worried if we engage in a detailed discussion of this case with Grassley's staff, that they'll just keep pushing for more and more information. But I think we need to come down hard and firm and say that the allegation is BS," Weinstein tells Burke.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think it would be easier to say, "We did not tell the truth. What are you going to do about it?". And what are they going to do about it?

WarriorClass III said...

Is there really anything left to say? Last night 93 Senators voted to flush the Constitution down the toilet. It has been a valiant effort to avoid civil war. It really has. And Mike takes the prize for the most effort, the best effort, and the heroic stance. He's the best big brother I never had. Taught me a lot. I plugged his web site everywhere I could for the last 3 years or more, hoping people would get the message and we would avoid war. Sent money, wrote my senators and congressman. Urged others to do the same, even sending people prewritten letters to send to their reps.

But when 93 SENATORS vote to flush the Bill of Rights down the shitter, what is there left to say to convince people? This is not the first abuse of Americans. 90% of the people opposed the TARP theft, and now we find out that the 700 Billion was a joke, it was at least 7.7 TRILLION dollars printed by the Federal Reserve Banksters to their friends.

And they want US to pay that back. With our hard earned labor.

Let me tell you this, US Government and Federal Reserve, GO FUCK YOURSELVES!

I am not your slave!

I will not pay you jack shit. You have no right to the fruits of my labor. You have no right to my children. You have no rights at all; you relenquished any rights you may have had with your theft, fraud, and lawlessness. And now you have codified any protection you may have had by abolishing any protection there may have been for you when you flushed the Bill of Rights down the toilet.

NINTY THREE SENATORS voted to end the BILL of RIGHTS people, 93%.

DO NOT DELUDE YOURSELVES PEOPLE.

THE US GOVERNMENT HAS DECLARED WAR ON YOU!

Fight back or die a slave.

WarriorClass
III

Over and out.

Longbow said...

They are all crooks. Who will prosecute the prosecutors? Who will police the federal Law Imposement agencies?

No one will.

Those crooks will continue to throw down one excuse/explanation after another until they find one that works. If they have to sacrifice one or two of their fellow crooks then so be it. Most will keep their jobs/careers/pensions.

Shame? A crook has no shame. He has no honor. His only concerns are,
1. What do I want,
2. What is in the way of me getting what I want, and
3. How much can I get away with?

I hope every federal employee understands, that by keeping silent on this he is self-identifying with the crooks who did it.

Good guys? This is a defining moment. Now is what may be your last opportunity to show yourself to be an oath keeper.

Anonymous said...

Does anybody know if there is a Judge Jack Weinstein in Jason's family tree? Could Jason be the son of the world famous anti-gun judge?

Anonymous said...

"Burke may have been relying on aides in his office, who more closely supervised the day to day activities of the ATF in the gun trafficking operation."

"Weinstein told colleagues in an April 12, 2010, email that the ATF should be “embarrassed that they let this many guns walk” in Wide Receiver"

This is the 'Ooops! we're sorry this happened because junior personnel let it slide through the cracks' defense. Meaning they still intend to sacrifice junior personnel and that they believe they can get away with it.

"...American public’ (sic) exposure to the legality of people buying 20-30 AK-47s "

They know damn well that these weren't AK's but argue in those terms which means of course that they are content with lying and covering up in-line with a political agenda.

"More than 1,000 pages of frenzied email exchanges were fired back and forth among Justice Department officials, as they weighed how to respond"

Generally if you tell the truth and do your job as you are expected, you don't have to worry so much.

Pericles said...

As opposed to willing stoogrs of the anti-gun lobby?

W W Woodward said...

Holder's government lawyers are using the word "inaccurate" to avoid having to say "lie". Reminds me of the current trend in TV commercials in which the word "Virtual" is used in order to avoid saying "almost".

[W3]

J. Croft said...

Awful hard to coordinate lies for over 1400 pages, and whatever amount of time it took to compile them-and then there's who knew to lie about what.

Unknown said...

My thoughts are that if Obama get re-elected in 2012 and I personally think he will. The 2012 election is going to be a repeat of the 2008 one.
I hate to say this and have thought long and hard about it. If Obama and his liberal,Socialist and communist friends remain in power, the only think that's going to save us is a civil war.
A lot of my friends think the same way.