WASHINGTON — The investigation into a controversial U.S. gun-trafficking investigation took an unexpected turn last weekend when the ATF head met secretly with congressional aides and conceded that his agency made mistakes in directing “Operation Fast and Furious,” officials said Wednesday.
Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, had been scheduled to speak to congressional investigators next Wednesday, in the presence of Justice Department and ATF lawyers. Instead, he brought his own attorney and was interviewed twice over the Fourth of July weekend.
Melson’s decision, which took ATF and Justice Department officials by surprise, was the latest fallout from the Fast and Furious sting. That now-defunct operation targeted Mexican gun traffickers, but it has been linked to the killing of a Border Patrol officer. Congressional Republicans have criticized the ATF over the operation and are pushing to learn whether senior Justice Department officials were involved.
The transcript of Melson’s interview has not been publicly released, but people familiar with it said the ATF leader indicated that Attorney General Eric Holder did not know about the operation, that it would be unusual for other Justice Department officials in Washington to know the details and that the U.S. attorney’s office in Phoenix was overseeing the program.
Yet the ATF chief also said he moved to reassign managers involved in Fast and Furious and became “sick to his stomach” upon learning “the full story” of the operation, according to a letter sent Tuesday to Holder by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. They are leading the congressional probe.
