ATF Project Gunrunner

From Fox News: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...etails-in-fast-and-furious-gunrunner-scandal/

Andre Howard's attorney contends that Howard was recording Hope MacAllister in order to get evidence from her that the agency was letting the guns walk across the border. That, according to the lawyer, is why Howard used the language that's on the tapes.

Maybe so, maybe not - that's probably a debate for another time. But I think that it's been made clear that the gun sales to straw purchasers who would have been denied by the NICS were green-lit by the ATF. Because of that, this quote from the article is chilling to me:

Howard made the tapes in March 2011 after a meeting he and his attorneys held with federal officials. In that meeting, Assistant U.S. Attorney Emory Hurley continued to insist the guns Lone Wolf sold were stopped and seized before reaching Mexico.

But ATF officials are quoted in a Washington Post article and the Spanish language daily La Opinion saying just the opposite -- blaming Lone Wolf for "selling guns to the cartels" with no mention that Howard was operating under the federal government's direction, encouragement and approval.
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Ahh...the dealer is the bad guy. Of course.
 
Fox Ticker reporting that the Inspector General for the ATF improperly turned over evidence including tape recordings to ATF Agents who were under investigation. Checking for more info.
 
Fox Ticker reporting that the Inspector General for the ATF improperly turned over evidence including tape recordings to ATF Agents who were under investigation. Checking for more info.
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I read somewhere that the information was turned over to the U.S. Attorney's Office in AZ which originally handled the prosecutions before recusing itself. The IG did it because it was exculpatory (helpful to the defendant) and had to be turned over to the defendant under the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Constitution. Assuming this is true, I have no problem with the IG doing so so long as it wasn't a facade to funnel sensitive information about the investigation to government employees being investigated.
 
The prosecution doesn't have to turn over exculpatory information to the defense until there is a crime identified, a defendant arrested, charged, and indicted, and a trial pending. So far, nobody has been charged with any criminal act, so any talk about turning over exculpatory evidence to "the defense" is completely unrelated to the situation.

Basically, the IG gave the US Attorney's office the information so they could start building their cover story.
 
What KyJim wrote is true. Several defendants are awaiting trial in LA and San Diego. The information turned over was requested by the defense attorneys at discovery.

This was stated, by one of the defense attorneys, some months ago.

These criminal trials may be the one way that the current administration is brought to its knees. Remember, these trials are for criminal conduct and virtually everything will be public.
 
Issa further stated that he did not wish to appoint a special prosecutor just yet due to the ongoing investigation, which has expanded far beyond what anyone had imagined when the scandal first came to light.
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This is a quote from the article above.

Why would Issa make this statement? It's actually irrelevant whether he wants to appoint a special prosecutor or not, since as a committee chairman he has exactly the same authority as you or I or the guy down the street to appoint one.
 
The solution to the discovery problem should have been to remove the Phoenix office from the investigation much sooner, as in, as soon as it was apparent there was a conflict.

I'd say that would be about last March, a month or so before Eric Holder heard about gunwalking for the first time.
 
I'd say that would be about last March, a month or so before Eric Holder heard about gunwalking for the first time.
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My personal opinion is that Eric Holder & the administration didn't "find out" about Fast & Furious - I'm quite certain they initiated it. There may never be evidence to support this, but I find the notion that a rogue field office of BATFE conjured all of this up on its own and only reluctantly revealed it later on to be rather unlikely. It's much more believable to me that an actively anti-gun White House set all of this in motion in order to administratively push a gun control agenda that it could not possibly get through Congress.
 
If it's true that F&F was to fan the flames of gun control, it is akin to an environmentalist poisoning groundwater in order to enact safe drinking water regulations.

The unfolding of this investigation seems very well timed. I'm hoping it reaches a peak around, say, early October, 2012.
 
From the two bloggers that brought this whole sordid mess to everyone's attention. A new startling development has been uncovered. First David Codrea's take on it:

ATF Counsel email to Melson on Gunwalker-Terry murder link preceded intimidation

Mike Vanderbough has his take on the story here.

[note: they are pretty much the same. If you read one, you won't see much difference in the other]

An explicit admission in this January 5, 2011 email is:
In that regard, suspects may alter their behavior if they know that law enforcement is allowing certain firearms to 'walk' into Mexico.
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So back in early Jan. the former acting Director and his counsel knew that the guns were being walked, despite all claims to the contrary.

Wonder what Issa will do with this?
 
Al, I think the larger question is...why is Issa being left on an island with all of this? Why has none of the House or Senate Republican leadership so much as taken a sniff at any of it? They seem thoroughly frightened of taking on the WH over this.
 
Al, I think the larger question is...why is Issa being left on an island with all of this? Why has none of the House or Senate Republican leadership so much as taken a sniff at any of it? They seem thoroughly frightened of taking on the WH over this.
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Because obama and holder are black. They could get drunk on live national TV in the Rose Garden and murder a hooker, and the republicans wouldn't do anything about it. (And they won't seriously go after clinton or napolitano because they are women.) They are skeered of being called racist or sexist -- which is racist and sexist in and of itself.
 
And that, zxcvbob, is the answer to the silent and unasked question. Wish it weren't so, but I guess it is what it is.

I just listened to Sen. Grassley on the release of the tapes. If what he says is to be believed, the release by the IG was not only before any trials were started, they still aren't into the discovery stage.

So if the defense attorneys didn't do a discovery, then there can be only one reason for the release of the tapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iMDufUMzl0
 
Is it just me or are we seriously getting close to the definition of a RICO crime? Maybe Im wrong??? But I dont see any difference between this and a maifa boss scheme... other than tax payer money was used to provide the weapons used to kill our agents.

Ok, so its worse than a RICO crime but I think it may now be approaching the actual legal definition...
 
I can think of no response to the posts above that would not violate board rules, so I will just say this - may God (should there be one) help this nation, for we certainly need it. We have no leaders. None.
 
Race and Politics, or might it be described as Racial Politics? Interesting, but then is there any reason at all for the citizenry to have faith in either Democratic or Republican "leadership"?
 
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