Operation Fast and Furious: The Forgotten History of the ATF's Notorious Gunwalking Scandal

Sam Jacobs

The ATF isn’t all bad. In fact, they had a policy of letting illegal gun purchases go between 2006 and 2011. It ended up getting U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry killed on December 14, 2010, and let Mexican criminals get enough guns that they were found at over 150 crime scenes where Mexican citizens were either killed or maimed. And some of the guns were used in the November 2015 terrorist attack in Paris at the Bataclan. But other than that, it turned out just fine.

(In case you’re not picking up on it, we’re laying on the sarcasm very thick right now.)

You probably know what was officially called “Project Gunrunner” as “Operation Fast and Furious.” Started under George W. Bush, this ATF policy audaciously grew under President Obama and became indicative of the perceived attack on American gun owners by both policy makers and their friends in the establishment media.

It’s one of many scandals of the Obama Administration that was never given as much press attention as, for example, Russia buying Facebook ads about NoFap and Pizzagate. Given that the guns run by the ATF were allowed to kill hundreds and that subsequent Congressional investigations resulted in Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General, becoming the first sitting cabinet member to be held in criminal contempt of Congress ever, this is shocking. At least for anyone still under the illusion that the establishment media is a fair and impartial source of information.

It is a sad truth that in our world today, there are very few actual journalists. While conservatives, libertarians and patriots tend to chafe at the mere mention of journalists, it’s worth noting that independent journalists – those not in thrall to big business and big government – fulfill an extremely valuable function of telling the truth and uncovering corruption. Case in point: The Fast and Furious scandal was broken by two independent journalists: David Codrea of The War on Guns and the late Mike Vanderboegh (who holds the distinct honor of being denounced by both Bill Clinton and the Southern Poverty Law Center) of Sipsey Street Irregulars.

Indeed, when ATF agents at Clean Up ATF sought a way to secure protection for their whistleblowers, it was Codrea and Vanderboegh who put them in touch with Senator Grassley. Sharyl Attkisson and William La Jeunesse were two notable exceptions, but for the most part, the corporate media either ignored the scandal and/or claimed it was a “botched sting.” It fell on Codrea and Vanderboegh to dig deep into the scandal and get the real story.

Sit down and get ready to dig into what is perhaps the most egregious scandal of President Drone’s administration – and there’s a lot to pick from.

READ ENTIRE COLUMN 

‘Fast And Furious’ Settlement Entered Into DC Court

Hours after House Judiciary Committee Democrats voted to hold Attorney General Bill Barr in contempt of Congress for withholding parts of the Mueller report, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the House Oversight Committee settled the 2012 contempt case against the DOJ. The case, related to the “Fast and Furious” document subpoena demanded of Obama’s Attorney General Eric Holder when Republicans held the majority, is now considered settled, since Democrats became the majority in the lower chamber and Elijah Cummings became Oversight Committee Chairman.
According to court documents, settlement negotiations first began January 2017 during the 115^th Congress. By March 7, 2018, the Justice Department and the Oversight Committee signed a conditional settlement agreement with certain conditions, which included that the court would vacate certain rulings at issue on remand. However, the court ruled last October that it would not vacate the rulings. Following a subsequent lapse in appropriations for the DOJ and the election of Cummings as Chair, “the parties resumed settlement negotiations in early February 2019. The parties informed this Court on April 4, 2019, that they had ‘made substantial progress towards a negotiated solution.’”...MORE

BREAKING: DOJ Announces Fast and Furious Documents Withheld by Eric Holder Will Be Released

The Department of Justice announced Wednesday additional documents related to the Operation Fast and Furious scandal during the Obama administration will be released to the House Oversight Committee. The documents were previously withheld by Attorney General Eric Holder, who was voted in civil and criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to turn them over. President Obama invoked executive privilege in June 2012 to prevent their release just hours before the contempt vote was held. “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,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions released in a statement. The Department stated the document release is part of “the conditional settlement agreement, filed in federal court in Washington D.C.” and “would end six years of litigation arising out of the previous administration’s refusal to produce documents requested by the Committee.” During an interview with Fox and Friends Tuesday, the brother of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry called on the Trump administration to reopen the investigation into the operation and to release previously withheld documents. "We need to find out the truth, exactly what happened, how it happened, why it happened. We need Mr. Trump, President Trump, to unseal the documents, reverse executive privilege so that we know what happened, and that we can hold the people accountable that are responsible," Kent Terry said. Terry was murdered by Mexican cartel rip crew members in December 2010. They were carrying guns illegally trafficked by ATF to Mexico through the Fast and Furious program...more

Questions on Mueller’s Role in Fast and Furious Remain Unanswered

by David Codrea

...That doesn’t mean Mueller was ever anything besides an establishment functionary. Case in point, he made his contempt for the Second Amendment and his oath to the Constitution clear in his condemnation of the Supreme Court’s Heller decision. Based on his own words, he is against anyone but law enforcement and the military having guns, including in the home. He 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. One such independent effort to reveal new details about Fast and Furious is being resurrected by a filmmaker that my colleague, the late Mike Vanderboegh and I worked with over five years ago. Noting the timing is now right to continue with the project, documentarian Fleming Fuller has teamed up with Ron Colburn, former national Deputy Chief of the United States Border Patrol, and a founding member of BORTAC, the Border Patrol’s national tactical unit. They are continuing with production. “Under the Radar – Above the Law” promises to bring new “gunwalker” matters to light, including previously unreported information about FBI activities under Mueller’s leadership...more

Rifle found at El Chapo hideout tied to Fast and Furious

One of the guns that Mexican officials say was found at the hideout of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera has been found to be associated with Fast and Furious, a failed “gun-walking” operation, according to the Justice Department. The department said in a letter to members of Congress that a .50-caliber rifle that Mexican officials sent for tracing after Guzman’s arrest in January has been connected to Fast and Furious. Officials say the weapon was one of 19 firearms that Mexican authorities said were recovered from the hideout and was the only one determined to be associated with the botched sting operation, 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...more

‘Fast & Furious’ rifle capable of taking down helicopter found in 'El Chapo' cache

A .50-caliber rifle found at Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman’s hideout in Mexico was funneled through the gun-smuggling investigation known as Fast and Furious, sources confirmed Tuesday to Fox News. A .50-caliber is a massive rifle that can stop a car or, as it was intended, take down a helicopter. After the raid on Jan. 8 in the city of Los Mochis that killed five of his men and wounded one Mexican marine, officials found a number of weapons inside the house where Guzman was staying, including the rifle, officials said. When agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives checked serial numbers of the eight weapons found in his possession, they found one of the two .50-caliber weapons traced back to the ATF program, sources said...more

Federal Court Releases Hold on Fast & Furious Docs Case

An interim victory for the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, which is suing the Obama administration over withheld Fast and Furious documents: a federal judge has lifted a 16-month delay in the Freedom of Information lawsuit. That means the Department of Justice must turn over an index describing all of the material it’s been holding back since September of 2012. Judicial Watch had requested all of the documents that President Obama ordered withheld from Congress under executive privilege. The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge John Bate orders the Justice Department to provide the so-called “Vaughn index” listing of documents by October first. The Justice Department has long claimed that allowing the Judicial Watch lawsuit to move forward would interfere with its ongoing lawsuit in which the House Oversight Committee is suing for the same documents...more

Brian Terry’s brother rips Eric Holder over ‘shocking’ ineptitude

Brian Terry

Kent Terry, the brother of slain border agent Brian Terry, sent a scathing letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding to know why the United States has let years pass without holding anyone accountable for Operation Fast and Furious. In his letter, Mr. Terry wrote, Breitbart.com reported: “Mr. Holder, I am going to get right to the point of this letter. I am not pleased with your behavior as America’s Attorney General. Simply denying that you had no knowledge about Operation Fast and Furious is troubling in itself, but for you to not comply with Congress is even more troubling. It is shocking to know that the Attorney General of the United States had no knowledge or was not made aware of Fast and Furious until after the death of my brother, Brian Terry.” He then asked why Mr. Holder has not held anyone in his department, or in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, accountable for his brother’s 2010 murder. “For you, Mr. Holder, to be so ill served by your own advisers on your watch is unbelievable,” he wrote, Breitbart reported. “If that is the case, then you would think there would be accountability to your so called advisers who did not inform you. Where is the accountability Mr. Holder?” Fast and Furious was a 2009 operation that allowed ATF agents to send 2,000 high-powered rifles across the Mexico borders, with hope of tracking them and discovering the whereabouts of drug cartel criminals. Law enforcement seized two of those weapons in connection with Mr. Terry’s death, which took place about 17 miles from the Mexico border in Arizona.  Washington Times

Reese family to get new trial, judge rules

In a decision issued today, a federal judge gave a new trial to three members of a Deming family convicted last year of making false statements in a firearms sting. U.S. District Court Judge Robert C. Brack granted two motions filed in December by attorneys for Rick Reese, his wife Terri Reese and their son Ryin Reese. The first had asked for a new trial because of Sixth Amendment violations; and the second had sought conditional release of the jailed family members. In explaining his decision, Brack wrote, in part, that evidence "intentionally or negligently" suppressed by the government "could have easily altered the outcome of the trial." In a prepared statement, the U.S. Attorney's Office said it is reviewing the order and "assessing whether it will seek to file an appeal." A new trial date has not been set. Doña Ana County Detention Center records show Rick Reese, 57, and Ryin Reese, 25, were still in custody as of Friday night. Terri Reese had been released last year. The Reeses had operated a gun store, where some of the alleged crimes occured. Jason Bowles, Ryin Reese's attorney, said he was "ecstatic" when he received the email letting him know Brack had filed his decision, and it was in his client's favor...more