WASHINGTON — Republican congressional investigators have concluded that five senior ATF officials — including the special agent in charge of the Phoenix field office and the bureau's top man in Washington — were responsible for the failed Fast and Furious gun-tracking operation that was "marred by missteps, poor judgments and inherently reckless strategy."In a final report likely to be released this week, investigators cite new evidence that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Phoenix initially sought to hide from the Mexican government that two firearms recovered after the killing of a Mexican official's brother were linked to Fast and Furious.
According to a copy of the report obtained Monday by The Times, the investigators said their findings were "the best information available as of now" about the flawed gun operation that led to last month's House vote to hold Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.
Two more final reports will deal with "the devastating failure of supervision and leadership" at the Justice Department and the "unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself," investigators said.
Senior Justice Department officials, including Holder, have maintained that Fast and Furious was confined to the Arizona border region and that Washington was never aware of the flawed tactics.
The report said Kenneth E. Melson, then acting ATF director, was made into a "scapegoat" after he told congressional Republicans that his Justice Department supervisors "were doing more damage control than anything" else once Fast and Furious became public.
"My view is that the whole matter of the department's response in this case was a disaster," Melson told investigators.
Fast and Furious, which allowed about 2,500 illegal gun sales in Arizona with the hope that agents would track the weapons to Mexican drug cartels, began in fall 2009 and was halted after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. By then, most of the weapons had been lost, and two were recovered at the scene of his slaying.
The previous month, in Mexico, the brother of the Chihuahua state attorney general was killed. Two of 16 weapons recovered after a shootout with Mexican police were traced to Fast and Furious.
ATF Agent Tonya English urged Agent Hope MacAllister and their supervisor, David J. Voth, to keep the link to Mario Gonzalez's slaying under wraps. "My thought is not to release any information," she told them in an email.
When the victim's brother, Patricia Gonzalez, later learned that two of the guns had been illegally obtained under Fast and Furious, she was outraged. "The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims," she said.
After Terry was killed south of Tucson in December, Voth emailed fellow ATF agents: "Ugh ... things will most likely get ugly."
The joint staff report, written by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, castigated the five ATF supervisors. All have been moved to other positions and could not be reached for comment Monday, but they have largely defended the operation.
The report said William Newell, special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, exhibited "repeatedly risky" management and "consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques."
His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William J. McMahon, "rubber-stamped critical documents without reading them," the report said. "In McMahon's view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field." The report added that McMahon gave "false testimony" to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.
His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, "played a surprisingly passive role during the operation," the report said. "He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required."
Above Chait was Deputy Director William J. Hoover, who, the report said, ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: "Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized."
And they said Melson, a longtime career official at the Justice Department, "often stayed above the fray" instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an end sooner.
ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona in efforts to seek criminal charges for illegal gun sales, the report said, and that Melson "even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down."
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According to a copy of the report obtained Monday by The Times, the investigators said their findings were "the best information available as of now" about the flawed gun operation that led to last month's House vote to hold Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over subpoenaed documents.
Two more final reports will deal with "the devastating failure of supervision and leadership" at the Justice Department and the "unprecedented obstruction of the [congressional] investigation by the highest levels of the Justice Department, including the attorney general himself," investigators said.
Senior Justice Department officials, including Holder, have maintained that Fast and Furious was confined to the Arizona border region and that Washington was never aware of the flawed tactics.
The report said Kenneth E. Melson, then acting ATF director, was made into a "scapegoat" after he told congressional Republicans that his Justice Department supervisors "were doing more damage control than anything" else once Fast and Furious became public.
"My view is that the whole matter of the department's response in this case was a disaster," Melson told investigators.
Fast and Furious, which allowed about 2,500 illegal gun sales in Arizona with the hope that agents would track the weapons to Mexican drug cartels, began in fall 2009 and was halted after U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed in December 2010. By then, most of the weapons had been lost, and two were recovered at the scene of his slaying.
The previous month, in Mexico, the brother of the Chihuahua state attorney general was killed. Two of 16 weapons recovered after a shootout with Mexican police were traced to Fast and Furious.
ATF Agent Tonya English urged Agent Hope MacAllister and their supervisor, David J. Voth, to keep the link to Mario Gonzalez's slaying under wraps. "My thought is not to release any information," she told them in an email.
When the victim's brother, Patricia Gonzalez, later learned that two of the guns had been illegally obtained under Fast and Furious, she was outraged. "The basic ineptitude of these officials [who ordered the Fast and Furious operation] caused the death of my brother and surely thousands more victims," she said.
After Terry was killed south of Tucson in December, Voth emailed fellow ATF agents: "Ugh ... things will most likely get ugly."
The joint staff report, written by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, castigated the five ATF supervisors. All have been moved to other positions and could not be reached for comment Monday, but they have largely defended the operation.
The report said William Newell, special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, exhibited "repeatedly risky" management and "consistently pushed the envelope of permissible investigative techniques."
His boss, Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations William J. McMahon, "rubber-stamped critical documents without reading them," the report said. "In McMahon's view it was not his job to ask any questions about what was going on in the field." The report added that McMahon gave "false testimony" to Congress about signing applications for wiretap intercepts in Fast and Furious.
His supervisor, Mark Chait, assistant director for field operations, "played a surprisingly passive role during the operation," the report said. "He failed to provide oversight that his experience should have dictated and his position required."
Above Chait was Deputy Director William J. Hoover, who, the report said, ordered an exit strategy to scuttle Fast and Furious but never followed through: "Hoover was derelict in his duty to ensure that public safety was not jeopardized."
And they said Melson, a longtime career official at the Justice Department, "often stayed above the fray" instead of bringing Fast and Furious to an end sooner.
ATF agents said that they were hamstrung by federal prosecutors in Arizona in efforts to seek criminal charges for illegal gun sales, the report said, and that Melson "even offered to travel to Phoenix to write the indictments himself. Still, he never ordered it be shut down."
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