WASHINGTON —Democrats looking into Operation Fast and Furious say a year-long investigation has turned up no evidence that the flawed gun-smuggling probe was conceived or directed by high-level political appointees at Justice Department headquarters.
The probe, the Democrats say, was just one of four such operations that were part of a misguided five-year-long effort, during the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, in the Phoenix division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives against firearms trafficking along the Southwest border.
“Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of fatally flawed operations run by ATF agents in Phoenix and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office,” the report from Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says.
It is expected to differ sharply from the conclusions of Republicans, who will question Attorney General Eric Holder at a hearing Thursday.
On Tuesday, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., threatened to pursue contempt-of-Congress proceedings against the attorney general on grounds the Justice Department has not turned over all the records subpoenaed by the committee. Issa gave Holder until Feb. 9 to comply. The Associated Press
