Republican lawmakers are demanding answers after the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,
and Explosives (ATF) revealed they were destroying firearms associated with the Obama/Biden
administration’s botched Operation Fast and Furious, just weeks before Republicans assume
control of Congress and despite ongoing criminal investigations related to the scandal.
During that scandal the Obama/Biden Justice Department allowed Mexican drug cartels to not
only buy 2,000 firearms from legal U.S. dealers using false information, but allowed cartels to
transport and use the weapons to see where they ended up. That differed from Bush
administration policy, in which the illegal buyers were immediately arrested.
An estimated 300 murders are tied to weapons bought during the Fast and Furious scandals,
including the murders of two U.S. Border Patrol agents.
The ATF claims decision was made after the Department of Justice inspector general found
firearms seized during the scandal were improperly stored and should be destroyed as
all “criminal investigations, internal DOJ reviews, and civil suits relating to Operation Fast and
Furious have concluded and that stored evidence from that investigation no longer needs to be
preserved.”
But Republican lawmakers point out there are still ongoing criminal prosecutions related to the
wave of violence the Obama/Biden administration unleashed.
“Although the ATF apparently intends to forget its dangerous misconduct in Operation
Fast and Furious, the scandal is still a matter of public concern,” writes House Judiciary
Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-OH) in a letter to ATF Director Steven Dettelbach.
“(E)arlier this year, prosecutors in Mexico charged seven individuals with crimes related to
Operation Fast and Furious, including Mexico’s former top police official and a former Mexican
Federal Police commander,” writes Jordan.
“Given the potential for ongoing criminal and possible civil actions, it is not in the interest of
justice for the ATF to destroy potential evidence associated with Operation Fast and Furious,”
Jordan concludes.
