New Report: Holder Planned to Attend Fast and Furious Press Conference Prior to Border Agent Murder

 

House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa and Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley have just released another report, in a series of three, about Operation Fast and Furious. The latest report details failures by and knowledge of Department of Justice officials involved in the fatal scandal. The first report was released in July and a third report is expected in the next few weeks.

The most recent report contains damning information and documentation showing Attorney General Eric Holder's Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson and DOJ Official Patrick Cunningham discussing plans for Holder to participate a press conference announcing the "take-down" or the end of Operation Fast and Furious before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed on December 15, 2010. Guns from the Fast and Furious program were left at Terry's murder scene. Holder claims he didn't know about Operation Fast and Furious until May of 2011. The email below was sent on December 14, 2010 at 12:28 pm, just 12 hours before Terry's murder.

In questioning by Congressional investigators, an attorney for former U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke (who resigned in August 2011 in light of the scandal) admitted Burke was in contact with Wilkinson about Holder's participation in the Fast and Furious press conference and suggested it was Holder's office that requested coming out for the press conference in the first place. From the report:

Q. Okay. So this email is specifically in regard to the Attorney General coming out to join you for the take-down of Fast and Furious?
A. Correct.

As soon as the news showing the connection between Terry's murder and Operation Fast and Furious made its way back to Washington, Holder's participation in the press conference was cancelled.

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