The senior Justice Department official who sent a letter to a Republican senator falsely claiming that the department did not allow guns to be “walked” to drug smugglers in Mexico during the Fast and Furious investigation left the department Wednesday to become dean of the Baltimore School of Law.
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich told Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa — who had initiated Congress’s Fast and Furious probe — that accusations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico were “false.”
“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico,” Mr. Weich wrote in the Feb. 4, 2011, letter.
The Justice Department retracted that letter in December, with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. vigorously defending Mr. Weich and the department against charges of lying to Congress. “Nobody at the Justice Department has lied,” Mr. Holder said, adding that Mr. Weich did not know the information he had provided was inaccurate.
Mr. Weich is leaving just as a House committee gets ready to hold a hearing to decide whether to hold Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress for his refusal to turn over Justice Department documents concerning the Fast and Furious operation. That hearing, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is scheduled for Wednesday.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/13/holder-aide-who-erred-on-fast-furious-leaves-justi/
Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich told Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa — who had initiated Congress’s Fast and Furious probe — that accusations that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them to Mexico were “false.”
“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation into Mexico,” Mr. Weich wrote in the Feb. 4, 2011, letter.
The Justice Department retracted that letter in December, with Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. vigorously defending Mr. Weich and the department against charges of lying to Congress. “Nobody at the Justice Department has lied,” Mr. Holder said, adding that Mr. Weich did not know the information he had provided was inaccurate.
Mr. Weich is leaving just as a House committee gets ready to hold a hearing to decide whether to hold Mr. Holder in contempt of Congress for his refusal to turn over Justice Department documents concerning the Fast and Furious operation. That hearing, before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is scheduled for Wednesday.
Read more: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jun/13/holder-aide-who-erred-on-fast-furious-leaves-justi/
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