The Trump administration announced Wednesday that it is reversing “executive privilege” invoked by former President Barack Obama in June 2012 to prevent the release of federal documents related to Operation Fast and Furious, a gun-running operation ran by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) between September 2009 and December 2010.
“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 said in a statement.
Attorney General Eric Holder delivers remarks on Sept. 25, 2014 following President Barack Obama’s announcement that Holder was leaving the administration.
Operation Fast and Furious was a scandal-ridden gun-running operation in the Tuscon and Phoenix area by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), “purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them.”
In most but not instances these firearms would cross the U.S.-Mexico border and into the hands of violent cartels though some stayed in the states.
The U.S. Government knowingly allowed thousands of AK-47s, .50 caliber rifles and handgun straw purchases to occur, and in many cases they were “lost” to the feds in the process. It was authorized by the highest levels of the Department of Justice presumed to include the Attorney General at the time.
The documents were originally withheld from the public and even Congress by former 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 hours before a congressional vote of civil and criminal contempt by Congress would have forces the documents out into the light of scrutiny.
Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
The scandal peaked and the operation ultimately ended when Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed more than seven years ago by cartel members illegally trafficked by ATF through this program. During the course of that investigation, it was revealed a significant number of “Fast and Furious” firearms had been lost arguably rendering the operation a lethal failure.
