Government Still Doesn't Want To Discuss Fast And Furious

There are things that the US Government doesn't want discussed in open court and Operation Fast and Furious is one of them. This is true even in a criminal trial against a cartel boss. The cartel boss is question is Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera aka El Chapo of the Sinoloa Cartel. Perhaps I should say that the government especially doesn't want to have any discussion of Operation Fast and Furious in a case involving the cartel which received the firearms.

Guzman was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is now on trial in US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Judge Brian Cogan, a George W. Bush appointee, is the presiding judge in the case. Guzman's attorney is A. Eduardo Balarezo. He is a criminal defense attorney who handles Federal cases involving high profile defendants like Guzman. The prosecution team is headed by Richard Donoghue who is the US Attorney for the Eastern District.

The government has filed a motion in Limine to exclude questioning about Operation Fast and Furious. They are contending it will confuse the jury and prejudice the government's case against Guzman.

The defense strategy is transparent. Given the substantial number of articles that have been written about the Operation, many of which criticize the government’s handling of the movement of weapons from the United States into Mexico, the defense is attempting to use the well-known operation to place the government on trial. While the government will seek to introduce at trial seized weapons that had been identified by ATF agents within the scope of the Operation,1 any details about the Operation itself are completely irrelevant to the issues at trial under Rule 401 of the Federal Rules of Evidence and should be excluded on those grounds alone. To the extent that the details of the Operation are in any way relevant, pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 403, any minimal relevance would be greatly outweighed by the substantial risk of misleading the jury and unfair prejudice against the government.

The government respectfully seeks a ruling at this time precluding any further mention of the Operation, and in so doing, incorporates by reference its previous arguments in its Motions in Limine, Dkt. Nos. 213, 326. In light of the extensive reporting on the Operation, repeated references to the Operation in defense cross-examination questions create a substantial risk of tainting the jury, even if government objections to the questions are sustained by the Court and the witnesses are not required to answer the objectionable questions.

Judge Cogan had denied an earlier attempt to exclude this under the grounds that it was premature. From what I can tell, he has not ruled on this attempt to exclude this from being heard by the jury. Many of the orders are either restricted or under seal and cannot be seen by the general public, i.e, me and thee.

The New York Daily News is reporting on the trial including the motion by the government to exclude this information. Like most of the mainstream media, they are still referring to it as a "botched sting" operation. As Kurt Hofmann wrote over seven years ago, the only thing botched was the cover-up. It was true then and it is still true today.

It’s About Time DOJ Released These Docs

The Department of Justice announced today that it had entered into a conditional agreement with the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to release the documents it has been withholding for six years related to Operation Fast and Furious.

From the DOJ release:

Today, the Department of Justice entered into a conditional settlement agreement with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and will begin to produce additional documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. The conditional settlement agreement, filed in federal court in Washington D.C., would end six years of litigation arising out of the previous administration’s refusal to produce documents requested by the Committee.

In announcing the settlement, Attorney General Sessions said:

“The Department of Justice under my watch is committed to transparency and the rule of law. This settlement agreement is an important step to make sure that the public finally receives all the facts related to Operation Fast and Furious.”

It is a shame that Mike Vanderboegh did not live to see this after all the effort he and David Codrea put in to getting the story out to the public.

It's Been Over 7 Years And DOJ Is Still Stiffing The Terry Family

The family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has been waiting over seven years for the Department of Justice to release documents related to his death. As this tweet by former Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) makes clear, they will have to keep waiting.

I met with AG Sessions to get the Fast & Furious documents. He said NO and decided to let it continue to play out in court. Frustrating and disappointing to say the least. @realDonaldTrump #FastAndFurious https://t.co/0rRaSAskC8

— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) March 3, 2018

That Attorney General Jeff Sessions continues to hide the role of the Department of Justice in the death of Agent Terry is unconscionable. It was what we expected from his predecessors. Frankly, for this and so many more reasons, it is time for Sessions to be sent home to Alabama.

The Terry family was promised back during the presidential campaign by Donald Trump he would get them justice.

#FastAndFurious @realDonaldTrump Sir it's been 7 yrs .my family ask you reopen Obama's gun scandal that cost my brother his life..I talk to you back on the campaign trail here in Michigan and you offered to reopen the books into this senseless scandal .thank you.God bless

— Kent terry (@terry_superman) March 3, 2018

They are still waiting.

If you would like to send a message to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, here is the link.

David Codrea On Robert Mueller And Gunwalking

David Codrea along with the late Mike Vanderboegh were the two independent journalists who helped bring Operation Fast and Furious to the light of day. I doubt there is anyone around today who has a better knowledge of it than David. Thus, it was with great interest that I saw a post by David at Ammoland.com asking about former FBI Director Robert Mueller's role in the affair.

The key part:

He (Mueller) was asked to stay on beyond his 10-year term by Barack Obama, curiously just as things were starting to heat up on the Operation Fast and Furious investigations by the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. “Gunwalking” and the Brian Terry murder took place on his watch, and Mueller’s FBI, with its confidential informants being tracked as suspects by ATF, was up to its neck in things.

Outrageously, there is no reason to expect Congress to be any more successful at exposing the full truth than they have been so far at holding Eric Holder accountable for his Fast and Furious obstruction. Nor, as we see from the preponderance of agenda reporting, lies of omission and outright fake news can establishment media be relied on. As with the original Fast and Furious reporting, expect new revelations to come from independent efforts while those with the mass reach fall back on deliberate indifference and hoping not too many notice.

 David notes that Mueller condemned the Supreme Court's decision in DC v. Heller. It may be just a coincidence and it may be that Mueller along with Eric Holder was helping to pull the strings. We just don't know. However, I will say that David rarely speculates without substantial evidence in hand.

David goes on to add that an independent film that had been shelved dealing with Operation Fast and Furious is being resurrected.

See David's post for the complete story on the film and on Mueller.

Fast And Furious Revisited

Sharyl Attkisson had a story this morning on her Full Measure news show about Operation Fast and Furious and BATFE Senior Agent John Dodson. Since it isn't syndicated in all markets, I have embedded it below.

As I watched her interview with Agent Dodson, I was struck by a few things. First, Dodson is a brave and ethical man. He is still with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives despite all the crap thrown his way by his own agency. He has been transferred 11 times in the six years since he blew the whistle on Operation Fast and Furious. It is obvious that the powers that be in BATFE - who just happened to be in positions of power six years ago - want him gone. Dodson has gone into some detail about his experiences in his own book over the scandal.

Second, I am aghast that the Department of Justice under President Trump and AG Sessions has not seen fit to release all the documents sought by the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee. I have to hope that the reason the documents haven't been released is because the issue hasn't been brought before Sessions himself. If I remember it correctly, Jeff Sessions and his staff were some of the first people approached by the late Mike Vanderboegh regarding the gunwalking.

Third, the Deep State exists. There are still people in positions of power who are working tirelessly to retaliate against whistleblowers like John Dodson and to continue submerging the truth about Project Gunwalker aka Fast and Furious. Until these people are rooted out and dismissed, I doubt the full truth will ever be known.

Earlier this month, the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee released another report which dealt with the obstruction of Congress by the DOJ with regards to Operation Fast and Furious. The report concluded that there were failures (1) to provide answers to the Terry family, (2) there was a failure to objectively gather the facts, (3) there was a significant lack of respect for Congressional oversight, and (4) that former Attorney General Eric Holder's priorities were politics and spin.

Project Gunwalker Is Back In the News

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious is back in the news. That is because the suspected killer of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has been apprehended in Mexico on Tuesday.

William Lajeunesse of FoxNews reports:

The suspect, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, was apprehended by a joint U.S.-Mexico law enforcement task force that included the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals and the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC).

A $250,000 reward had been sought for information leading to the arrest of Osorio-Arellanes, who was captured at a ranch on the border of the Mexican states of Sinaloa and Chihuahua. U.S. authorities have said they will seek his extradition.

Terry was killed on Dec. 14, 2010 in a gunfight between Border Patrol agents and members of a five-man cartel "rip crew," which regularly patrolled the desert along the U.S.-Mexico border looking for drug dealers to rob.

The agent's death exposed Operation Fast and Furious, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) operation in which the federal government allowed criminals to buy guns in Phoenix-area shops with the intention of tracking them once they made their way into Mexico. But the agency lost track of more than 1,400 of the 2,000 guns they allowed smugglers to buy. Two of those guns were found at the scene of Terry's killing.

Four members of the "rip crew" have been arrested, convicted, and sentenced to prison in the United States. Jesus Rosario Favela-Astorga is the only remaining member of the "rip crew" still at large.

In a sane world, the involvement of the Obama Administration and Attorney General Eric Holder in Project Gunwalker should have brought it down. It didn't. Given all the talk about "fake news", this whole sordid episode is a reminder of how the mainstream media did not do its job.

The only two mainstream reporters that worked on the story were Fox's Lajeuness and then-CBS Investigative Report Sharyl Attkisson. If it was not for the efforts of the late Mike Vanderboegh, David Codrea, and Dave Workman, we never would have even known that the Justice Department and the BATFE were involved in allowing firearm to be walked to Mexico in an effort to build support for gun control measures.

While nothing will bring back Brian Terry, I'm happy to see his killer apprehended.

This And That

I was out of town at the end of last week at a company meeting. I missed that the House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee was having a hearing regarding the death of ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata. However, David Codrea didn't miss it nor the fact that two BATFE officials on their own accord skipped the meeting despite being "invited" to appear.

He (former Agent Vince Cefalu) was referring to Thursday’s appearance (video below) before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Activities by Thomas E. Brandon, Acting Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The hearing was held to further explore the ambush murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata by cartel operatives in Mexico, where “straw-purchased” guns allowed by ATF to “walk” across the border were recovered from the scene.

Two of Brandon's agents, Associate Deputy Director Ronald Turk and Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge William Temple, were no-shows to the hearing. They decided on their own not to come testify, and Brandon informed Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz that he agreed with their decision.

Recognizing a continuation of the stonewalling that was dragged on for years by ATF and the Department of Justice under the Obama administration, Chaffetz was having none of it. He immediately issued subpoenas for Temple and Turk to appear on March 22.

Ronald Turk, you may recall, is the one who wrote a white paper discussing, among other things, removing suppressors from the NFA. You'd think a guy who is clearly aiming to be named the new Director of BATFE would want some face time with Congress even if it wasn't going to be all favorable.

I also missed that Remington Arms Company is again laying off employees at their Ilion, New York plant due to slowing sales. My friend Rob Morse didn't miss it. He noted:

Remington Arms is moving out of anti-gun New York..one layoff at a time. They expand their production in Alabama during a market increase, and cut from the New York plant during the downturns. I guess elections have consequences as New York voters raised both the price of doing business and of owning a gun in NY.

If you listen to the news lately, you would think that the mainstream media has been teleported to the 1950s with all the hysteria over Russia. It is almost like that 60s move The Russians are Coming! The Russians are Coming! Lest you think that we in the gun culture are exempt from the Russian hysteria, Sebastian discusses a Daily Beast article trying to tie the NRA to Vlad (the Impaler) Putin.

I did work the GRNC booth Saturday morning at the Asheville Gun Show. While our business was a bit slow, the crowds seemed bigger than this time last year. I don't know whether it was bargain shopping on the part of attendees or because we were supposed to get snow Saturday night.

I didn't check the prices of ARs at the show but they did seem down at the Winston-Salem show I attended the preceding weekend. If anyone is looking for an AR15, now is as good a time as you'll ever get to buy one. I have seen Ruger AR-555s selling under $500 at multiple locations, off-brands for under $400, and the S&W M&P-15 in the low $500 range. If you want to look for deals, check the Reddit sub group called gun deals.

Project Gunwalker: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious is the gift that keeps on giving. If the Department of Justice and the BATFE wanted guns that had been walked to keep showing up at crime scenes in Mexico, they got their wish.

The Associated Press reported this morning that a .50 BMG rifle found at Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's hideout in January was one of the ones sold through a straw purchase in Operation Fast and Furious.

Officials say the weapon was one of 19 firearms that Mexican authorities said was recovered from the hideout and was the only one determined to be associated with the botched sting operation (sic), in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives allowed gun-runners to buy weapons in hopes of tracking them and disrupting gun smuggling rungs (sic).

The rifle was bought in July 2010 in a straw purchase by someone not known to ATF at the time. The buyer was later identified and came under investigation but was never indicted. The weapon is not known to be associated with any other crime, the Justice Department says.

This information was revealed in a letter from Assistant AG for Legislative Affairs Peter Kadzik to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and House Oversight and Governmental Affairs Chairman Jason Chaffetz. This letter gave an accounting of walked firearms that had been recovered in the US and Mexico.

“ATF accepts full responsibility for the flawed execution of Fast and Furious, and will continue to support Mexican law enforcement in efforts to recover and identify associated firearms.’’

As of January, according to the Justice Department letter, 885 firearms purchased by targets of the ATF operation have been recovered. Of that number, 415 were found in the U.S. and 470 “appear to have been recovered in Mexico.’’

The same letter confirmed prior reports that one of 19 weapons — a .50-caliber rifle — recovered in the January raid in Mexico that resulted in the re-capture of drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman also was traced to the ATF operation.

The letter goes on to say that the Department of Justice "deeply regrets" that firearms connected to Project Gunwalker were used in violent crimes. If they really regretted it, former Attorney General Eric Holder would have been tried for his contempt of Congress citation and BATFE officials would have been fired and not merely moved around. As it is, Holder never was prosecuted and former Phoenix FD SAC William Newell, ASAC George Gillett, and Deputy Assistant Director Bill McMahon were never fired.

The only people who suffered as a result of Project Gunwalker were Brian Terry, Jaime Zapata, 300 plus Mexicans, and their families who had to bury their loved ones. You could also add in the whistleblowers like Sr Agent John Dodson who had his life made a living hell by the powers that be.

She Approves Of Dead Mexicans, Gun Running, And Murdered Federal LEOs

Hillary Clinton is one of the most shameless politicians of this era or any era. If an endorsement or ad will get her just one more vote, she'll go for it. It doesn't matter if the person making the endorsement was the most partisan, the most contemptible, the most brutally corrupt Attorney General since the founding of this Republic. A man whose fingerprints were all over an operation to run guns to Mexican cartels so as to build support for gun control. A man who was found in Contempt of Congress. A man who said he supported voting rights but dismissed charges of outright voter intimidation against favored groups. A man who used the Department of Justice as a shakedown machine against corporate America.

Of course, I'm referring to former Attorney General Eric Holder.

Living in western North Carolina, 3/4's of our broadcast TV comes from the Upstate of South Carolina. I was watching Jeopardy! last night when the ad below came on with Holder's endorsement of Hillary. The two themes pushed were gun control and voting rights. These are themes that play well with black voters and Hillary needs to lock down the black vote to stave off Bernie Sanders.




Who cares if the endorser and his minions were responsible, directly or indirectly, for the murders of two Federal law enforcement officers, the deaths of a minimum of 300 Mexican nationals, and the arming of Mexican drug cartels through smuggled guns?

Hillary doesn't. All she cares about is getting one more vote.

A Little Late To This

As many of you know, Mike Vanderboegh has been battling cancer among a whole host of ailments. Recently, he was told by his oncologist that his time for this world was quite limited. David Codrea is spearheading a campaign to raise money for Mike and his family during his last days.

Per Mike, the doctors have told him he is not long of this world. As we all know, his financial situation due to years of disability and devotion to the larger issue of self-sacrifice for freedom is terrible. He is doing what he can to get his affairs in order, but the reality is, his wife will be left in really bad shape. I would like to help with a funding appeal.

I looked at various "crowdfunding" sites, but there are hoops to jump through and/or a cut they take. For now at least, in order to get the ball rolling and hopefully growing as it does, I'm asking all of Mike's friends to spread the word and to send gratitude offerings directly to him:

Paypal to georgemason1776@aol.com*

Check, money order, cash, etc. to Mike Vanderboegh, PO Box 926, Pinson, AL 35126.**

Mike is cranky and cantankerous and can be a SOB at times. That said, he deeply loves his wife Rosie and his daughters and son. While he may have pissed off a lot of people over time, he still was the person with David Codrea and Dave Workman who broke open Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker. If that was all he ever did in his life for the Second Amendment, then it would have been a life well spent.

As David Codrea writes in Ammoland today, donations and gifts to Mike should not be seen as charity but rather "gratitude gifts".

I like that and will be contributing. I hope you will see it in your heart to do so as well.

People Ask The Most Embarrassing Questions

Unlike scripted townhalls scheduled for CNN, when it comes to government agencies and social media embarrassing questions do get asked.

A case in point. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives maintains a Facebook page. They posted a number of links late last night to the new rules being promulgated as the result of President Obama's Executive Actions. There was one about the elimination of the CLEO signoff and another about Rule 41-P and responsible persons needing background checks. My favorite, however, was their guidance about when a Federal firearms license was needed. Someone named Bre Ve asked a question that you know they would rather ignore.

Reading the comments, it appears that a Becky Solis objected to the question. The commenters had good Google-fu and found out that she was none other than an area supervisor in the Denver Field Division. Her comment objecting to Ms. Ve's question has, of course, been deleted.

Good on Bre Ve for asking the question of the day and for the commenters in exposing Ms. Solis.

Absurd Ruling In Terry Murder Trial

US District Court Judge David Bury ruled on Friday that no mention of Operation Fast and Furious aka Project Gunwalker could be made in the trial of two men accused of the murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The U.S. asked the judge this summer to keep the details of Fast and Furious out of the murder trial, stating it was irrelevant.

Bury agreed. "I agree with one exception. I can't find any relevance expect if the government should open the door," he said.

If the government brings up the origins of the guns found, Bury ruled that defendants can then bring up Fast and Furious.

Bury ordered the defendants "not to refer to ... or elicit any testimony regarding Operation Fast and Furious. Understood?"

Excuse me?

The defendants, Ivan Soto Barraza and Jesus Leonel Sanchez Meza, used AK-47s to kill Agent Terry that the BATFE had allowed (encouraged) to be walked to Mexico as part of Operation Fast and Furious. Given that the Department of Justice and BATFE were complicit in providing the firearms used to kill Agent Terry, ICE Special Agent Jaime Zapata, and 300 or more Mexicans, I'm not surprised that the US Attorney's Office doesn't want it mentioned. However, I am surprised that a judge would deny the defense of the opportunity to use it in defending their clients.

It is obvious that burying the details of Operation Fast and Furious is important to the prosecutors. In addition to the judge's order above, they have a whole series of questions for potential jurors asking about their knowledge of Project Gunwalker.  One does have to wonder if this was a local decision to suppress mention of Operation Fast and Furious or did the order come down from DC.

Project Gunwalker Keeps On Giving

Operation Fast and Furious and Project Gunwalker keep on giving. The latest is news that at least one of the Islamofascist terrorists who attacked Pam Geller's "draw Mohammed" event in Garland, Texas was armed with a pistol from one of the gun shops in question.

Nadir Soofi purchased his 9mm handgun in 2010 from Lone Wolf Trading Company. This gun shop was cooperating with the BATFE in Operation Fast and Furious. Reports indicate that Soofi's purchase got slapped with a 7-day hold which was released 24 hours later for unknown reasons.

Two days ago the BATFE denied that Soofi's purchase had anything to do with Project Gunwalker. This is what they said to the Dallas Morning News:

Ginger Colbrun, chief spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, confirmed that Soofi legally purchased the 9 mm handgun from the Lone Wolf Trading Co. store in Glendale, Ariz., as reported by the Los Angeles Times over the weekend.

But while the gun shop was the top outlet for the Justice Department’s secret Fast and Furious firearms operation at the time of Soofi’s purchase, the sale was not part of the sting and Soofi was not a known criminal suspect, she said.

Previously, federal officials had refused to comment on the 2010 purchase.“There was no firearm associated with the Garland attack and Fast and Furious,” Colbrun said.

“His purchase of a handgun in 2010 was never reported to ATF as suspicious. He completed the background check as required, and he was never a suspect or person of interest in any ATF investigation.”

We have heard many denials in the past that the operation even existed so I agree with Alan Gottlieb below that we need to investigate this further. While it may sound a bit like Alex Jones-like chem-trails conspiracy theorist lunacy, is it all that unreasonable to think that just maybe someone in the Justice Department not only was arming narcoterrorists but Islamofascists as well? This in an effort to build a case for draconian gun control within the United States. Hmmm.

From the CCRKBA release:

BELLEVUE, WA – The weekend revelation that one of the two would-be terrorist gunmen killed at a Garland, Texas attack earlier this year had purchased a handgun “through a botched federal firearm sting” is ample reason for Congress to re-open its probe of the Operation Fast and Furious scandal, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The New York Daily News reported that slain would-be terrorist Nadir Soofi purchased a 9mm pistol in 2010 from the same gun shop that was heavily involved in the Fast and Furious gun trafficking case. At the time, the firearms retailer was cooperating with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in what was supposed to have been a gun trafficking “sting” effort.

“But Fast & Furious was a fiasco,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “The gun shop operator even expressed concerns about the way the investigation was being handled. Although the Garland gunman was not connected with Fast and Furious, because he was allowed to buy a handgun after a reported delay was placed on the transaction, we think Congress has good reason to ask more questions about the operation.

“This new revelation shows that not only did the operation put guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartel gunmen,” he added, “it now appears that a future would-be terrorist was allowed to buy a handgun at the same time.

“Nobody in the agency was ever held accountable for this blundering operation,” Gottlieb said. “One ATF agent even called Fast and Furious the ‘perfect storm of idiocy,’ and we’re inclined to agree. We predicted at the time that this operation would have far-reaching impacts, and that now appears to be the case.

“While our sources tell us that the gun Soofi bought was not recovered in Garland,” he stated, “the fact that he was able to buy that gun says the operation should have been called ‘Fast and Loose,’ and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, now with a new chairman, should dig back into this mess and find the truth.”

Project Gunwalker Makes It Into Loretta Lynch's Confirmation Hearing

Project Gunwalker aka Operation Fast and Furious was mentioned today as the confirmation hearings for Loretta Lynch to become the 83rd Attorney General began. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) had this to say in his opening statement:

The Department’s own Inspector General listed as one of its top management challenges: “Restoring Confidence in the Integrity, Fairness, and Accountability of the Department.”

He cited several examples, including the Department falsely denying basic facts in the Fast and Furious controversy. The Inspector General concluded this “resulted in an erosion of trust in the Department.”

In that fiasco, our government knowingly allowed firearms to fall into the hands of international gun traffickers.

And it led to the death of a Border Patrol Agent, Brian Terry.

And then, after Congress called on the leadership of the Department to account for this foolish operation, what did they do?

Did they apologize to the family and rush to uncover the truth?

Quite the opposite.

They denied, spun and hid the facts from Congress and the American people.

They bullied and intimidated whistleblowers, members of the press, and anyone who had the audacity to investigate and uncover the truth.

 You can listen to this in the live video of Lynch's hearings at the 25:00 to 26:09 marks.

While it won't bring back the lives of Brian Terry and Jaime Zapata, I'm glad Sen. Grassley at least hasn't forgotten them and what was a proximate cause of their deaths.

Chaffetz Renews Project Gunwalker Subpoena

In his first move as the new chairman of the House Oversight and Government Operations Committee, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) renewed the subpoena issued to Attorney General Eric Holder.

First action as Chairman. Subpoena Eric Holder on Fast & Furious. @GOPoversight #FastandFurious pic.twitter.com/1xtH4kLMQB
— Jason Chaffetz (@jasoninthehouse) January 6, 2015

Subpoenas die at the end of a session of Congress and thus need to be renewed. However, as Mike Vanderboegh notes, he doubts this will really go anywhere.

Sadly, I must agree with him. To the media, this is yesterday's story no matter that people are still being killed and will be killed with the walked AKs for a long time to come. Moreover, with Holder leaving office as soon as Loretta Lynch is confirmed as Attorney General, the impetus to go after him will diminish.

Biggest Failures Of His Tenure?

Outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder named as the biggest failure of his tenure - the lack of more gun control. Moreover, it "weighs heavily" on his mind.

“I think the inability to pass reasonable gun safety laws after the Newtown massacre is something that weighs heavily on my mind,” Holder said during an interview aired on CNN.

I can think of things that should weigh heavier on his mind like 300 dead Mexican nationals and 2 Federal law enforcement officer. And as Katie Pavlich reports, Project Gunwalker AKs were still being found at Arizona crime scenes as late as 2013.

Holder goes on to say:

“And the thought that we could not translate that horror into reasonable — I mean, really reasonable gun safety measures that were supported by the vast majority of the American people is for me something that I take personally as a failure,” he said, “and something that I think we as a society should take as a failure, a glaring failure, that I hope will ultimately be rectified.”

While Holder may look upon this as a failure, those of us who believe that 20,000 existing gun control laws is more than enough (and less would be better) would look upon it as one of the few accomplishments of his reign at DOJ. If Holder really wants to look at failures, he should look at how his tenure at Justice has politicized that department far and above anything that could have been dreamed up by Nixon's Attorney General John Mitchell.

Comment Of The Day

The comment of the day comes from an editorial in Investor's Business Daily. The subject of the editorial was the supposedly lost emails from former IRS official Lois Lerner. She is the IRS official who "took the Fifth" before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee with regard to her actions against Tea Party groups. Lerner has also been charged with contempt of Congress but the prosecution of that charge would have to come from the Department of Justice run by Eric Holder.

With regard to Holder, the editorial had this to say:

As in Watergate, more than a few individuals warrant prosecution and incarceration. But that would have to come from Eric Holder's Justice Department, an organization shown to be as corrupt as the IRS.

Watergate's John Mitchell was the first attorney general to be convicted and imprisoned due to illegal activities. We suggest that he shouldn't be the last.

I quite agree. I can think of many reasons that Attorney General Eric Holder should be tried but first and foremost among them would have to be Operation Fast and Furious. Unlike Watergate, two Federal law enforcement officers and over 300 Mexican nationals have been murdered as a result of those guns walked by ATF agents. 

I Wonder Where He Got That AK-47

Making the headlines this past weekend was the capture of Sinaloa drug cartel kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman by Mexican marines in a joint US-Mexico operation. What caught my eye in the story of how they got Guzman was this little detail.

"He had an AK-47 next to the bed. When the Mexican marines entered the condominium, he was still asleep," said Michael Vigil, a former Drug Enforcement Administration official who says he was briefed on the raid. "They used the element of surprise, and he did not have a chance to react and seize his weapon."

Guzman had an assault rifle and ammunition close by when Mexican marines broke into the apartment in a "surgical" operation, the Mexican official said.

What makes this detail so intriguing is that so many of the AKs "walked" to Mexico during Operation Fast and Furious ended up in Sinaloa Cartel hands. Indeed, the cartel's logistics head who is in US custody, Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, has argued in court filings that the walked guns were meant to arm the Sinaloa Cartel in their fight with their rivals.

You have to wonder if that AK-47 was a walked firearm and, if so, will the serial numbers be sent to BATFE for tracing. For some reason, I think while the Justice Department is quite pleased that they "got Shorty", I don't think they will ever want that particular AK-47s serial numbers traced. The answer might not be to their liking.

A Missing Third Fast And Furious Rifle?

Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News reports that the Department of Justice's Inspector General is looking into the existence of a three firearm found at the scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's murder.

In a new development in the Fast and Furious gunwalking case, the Justice Department's Inspector General (IG) is making inquiries into the possible existence of a missing third weapon in the 2010 murder of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, CBS News has learned. According to sources close to the investigation, the IG is questioning the Border Patrol’s evidence collection team this week in Tucson, Ariz.

The Justice Department, which oversees ATF and the FBI - and which is investigating Terry’s murder - has steadfastly denied the existence of a third gun. Court records have previously only mentioned two weapons: Romanian WASR AK-47 type rifles found at Terry’s southern Arizona murder scene on Dec. 14, 2010. Both weapons were sold to suspects who were under ATF's watch in the agency’s controversial gunwalking case. Also, a ballistics report only mentions the two WASR rifles and states that it's inconclusive as to whether either of them fired the bullet that killed Terry.

 The missing third rifle from the Fast and Furious murder scene is thought to be a SKS carbine which also shoots the 7.62x39 cartridge. Secret recordings made of meetings between ATF Agent Hope McAllister and Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company, referenced such a rifle.

In the audiotapes, ATF’s lead agent on Fast and Furious, Hope MacAllister, tells Howard that a third weapon recovered at the Terry murder scene is an SKS rifle. It's unclear why a weapon would be absent from the evidence disclosed at the crime scene under FBI jurisdiction. If it’s proven to exist, sources familiar with the investigation say it would imply possible evidence-tampering for unknown reasons.

DOJ denied its existence back in 2011 and neither the DOJ or the Inspector General's Office is willing to answer questions about this possible third murder weapon.

I'm glad to see that Sharyl Attkisson is keeping on the case and not letting it fade away as many in Washington seem willing to do.

John Dodson On His New Book

BATFE Senior Agent John Dodson was interviewed about his new book and Operation Fast and Furious on Cam & Company on Monday. It is an interesting interview which touched upon not only Fast and Furious but the culture within BATFE that led to using developmentally disabled individuals as middlemen.

I just picked up a copy of his book The Unarmed Truth: My Fight to Blow the Whistle and Expose Fast and Furious at my local Sam's Club. I am looking forward to reading it between now and the New Year.

I'm glad to see it on the shelves at Sam's Club because this means both the book and the scandal will get more exposure. I spoke with one of the product demonstrators at Sam's who noticed the book in my cart. She was shocked when I told her the story behind Fast and Furious as she had never heard anything about it in the news.

It is a good interview and it flows right along. I suggest listening to the whole thing.