Fast and Furious: Post-Election, Golden Parachutes Deployed
Fired and demoted, but still free.
You wouldn’t know it by perusing mainstream media coverage, but now that the 2012 election is out of the way, the Department of Justice is discarding some of the troublesome ATF and DOJ employees responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, the gunrunning operation that put more than 2,000 firearms into the hands of the Sinaloa narco-terrorist cartel.
Eric Holder’s chief of staff, Gary Grindler, was the highest-ranking figure to go:
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa seemed satisfied with Grindler’s departure:
David Codrea, who broke the scandal along with blogger Mike Vanderboegh, wasn’t letting Holder and Grindler off the hook:
Fired and demoted, but still free.
You wouldn’t know it by perusing mainstream media coverage, but now that the 2012 election is out of the way, the Department of Justice is discarding some of the troublesome ATF and DOJ employees responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, the gunrunning operation that put more than 2,000 firearms into the hands of the Sinaloa narco-terrorist cartel.
Eric Holder’s chief of staff, Gary Grindler, was the highest-ranking figure to go:
A ranking Justice Department official named by Republicans in their probes into the botched gunrunning scheme “Fast and Furious” will resign on Friday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced in a statement late Monday. Gary Grindler is Holder’s chief of staff and has held a number of other positions, including as acting deputy attorney general. His office oversaw the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which led the program that allowed hundreds of illegally purchased weapons into the hands of Mexican cartels as a way of tracking their movements.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa seemed satisfied with Grindler’s departure:
“Gary Grindler was appropriately faulted by his Department’s own Inspector General for keeping information about a connection between the murder of a Border Patrol Agent and a mishandled department operation away from the Attorney General and the Department of Homeland Security. His departure from the Justice Department is warranted and long overdue,” said Chairman Darrell Issa. “Other figures in Operation Fast and Furious are currently being evaluated for their conduct in the reckless effort that needlessly placed lives in danger. I expect more departures and discipline to come.”
David Codrea, who broke the scandal along with blogger Mike Vanderboegh, wasn’t letting Holder and Grindler off the hook:
How the IG has been able to determine that with certainty, and why Issa accepts it with full faith, are unknown. At most, all anyone can say with assurance is they haven’t been able to prove if Grindler communicated with Holder about a program under the attorney general’s authority, where enforcers and prosecutors were up to their necks in a sanctioned operation that has produced lethal collateral consequences.
Grindler, as Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars reported in November of last year, had generated notes “including about quantities of guns bought by straw purchasers and dollars spent.” He had detailed knowledge of a program that could present grave repercussions for his boss and the administration, and everyone is supposed to conclude he just kept all that to himself based on what?
Issa’s own release, in quoting the Joint Staff Report, prepared for himself and Sen. Chuck Grassley, gives good cause to not leap to such circumstantially unsupported conclusions.
Grindler, as Gun Rights Examiner and Sipsey Street Irregulars reported in November of last year, had generated notes “including about quantities of guns bought by straw purchasers and dollars spent.” He had detailed knowledge of a program that could present grave repercussions for his boss and the administration, and everyone is supposed to conclude he just kept all that to himself based on what?
Issa’s own release, in quoting the Joint Staff Report, prepared for himself and Sen. Chuck Grassley, gives good cause to not leap to such circumstantially unsupported conclusions.
