Lawmakers blast Justice Department’s ‘Fast and Furious’ probe

Two senior Republican lawmakers lambasted the Justice Department on Thursday for its “false denials” in the Fast and Furious gunrunning operation, demanding that the FBI turn over documents in its ongoing probe into the shooting death by Mexican bandits of a U.S. Border Patrol agent.

In a seven-page letter to FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, Rep. Darrell E. Issa of California and Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa said the lack of answers being given to Border Patrol Agent Brian A. Terry’s family concerning his Dec. 14 killing and the delay in bringing those responsible to justice “only compounds their anguish.”

“After 10 months of FBI investigation, Agent Terry’s family and the American public deserve to know more about the status of the inquiry, the state of the evidence, and any connections to Operation Fast and Furious,” they wrote.

Two AK-47 assault weapons purchased at a Glendale, Ariz., gun shop as a part of the Fast and Furious operation were found at the killing site — located just north of the U.S.-Mexico border near Nogales, Ariz.

But Mr. Issa, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Mr. Grassley, ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that neither the search-warrant affidavit nor an unsealed indictment in the case described the total number of guns recovered at the scene.

They said that based on the “limited information officially released about the circumstances,” it appeared that the illegal immigrants who shot at Terry may have been armed with a total of five rifles.

“We know that two Fast and Furious rifles were part of a lot of three, all purchased at the same time over a year earlier,” they said. “These circumstances naturally raise questions regarding the whereabouts of that third Fast and Furious gun, whether the other firearms were also connected to Fast and Furious, and the current location of all the firearms involved.”

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