January 2012

January 2012

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February 2012

February 2012

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March 2012

March 2012

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2012 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
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2015 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
2016 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
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April 2012

April 2012

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DARRELL E. CALIFORNIA

CHAIRMAN

ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS ELIJAH E. C U M M I N G S , M A R Y L A N D

RANKING M I N O R I T Y M E M B E R

DAN B U R T O N , INDIANA

JOHN L. M I C A , FLORIDA

TODD R U S S E L L P L A T T S , PENNSYLVANIA

MICHAEL R. T U R N E R , OHIO

PATRICK N O R T H C A R O L I N A

JIM OHIO

JASON C H A F F E T Z , U T A H

CONNIE MACK, FLORIDA

TIM W A L B E R G , M I C HIGAN

JAMES L A N K F O R D . OKLAHOMA

JUSTIN A M A S H , M I C H I G A N

ANN M A R I E BUERKLE, NEW YORK

PAUL A. GOSAR, AR IZONA

RAUL R. L A B R A D O R , I D A H O

PATRICK M E E H A N , P E N N S Y L V A N I A

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, TENNESSEE

JOE W A L S H , ILLINOIS

TREY G O W D Y , S O U T H C A R O L I N A

DENNIS A. R O S S , F L O R I D A

FRANK C. GUINTA, NEW HAMPSHIRE

BLAKE F A R E N T H O L D , T E X A S

MIKE KELLY, PENNSYLVANIA

 of EDOLPHUS TOWNS, NEW YORK

CAROLYN FJ. MALONEY, NEW YORK

ELEANOR H O L M E S N O R T O N ,

COMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND G O V E R N M E N T REFORM

 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING

 of

WASHINGTON, DC

MAJORITY (202)225-5074

FACSIMILE (202) 225-3974

MINORITY (202) 225-5051

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

DENNIS J. OHIO

JOHN F. T I E R N E Y , MASSACHUSETTS

WM. L A C Y C L A Y , M I S S O U R I

STEPHEN F. L Y N C H , M ASSACHUSETTS

JIM C O O P E R , T E N N E S S E E

GERALD E. C O N N O L L Y , V I R G I N I A

MIKE Q U I G L E Y , I L L I NOIS

DANNY K. D A V I S , I L L I N O I S

BRUCE L. BRALEY,

PETER W E L C H , V E RMONT

JOHN A. Y A R M U T H , KENTUCKY

CHRISTOPHER S. M U R P H Y , C O N N E C T I C U T

JACKIE S P E I E R , CALIFORNIA

LAWRENCE J. BRADY

STAFF DIRECTOR April 27, 2012

The Honorable Darrell E. Issa

Chairman

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

U.S. House of Representatives

Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Mr. Chairman:

According to a Los Angeles Times story published yesterday, you have drafted a 48-page

contempt citation for the Attorney General relating to the Committee's investigation into

Operation Fast and Furious, and a copy of this document has already been provided to the press

and to House Speaker John Boehner's office even before being distributed to Members of our

own Committee.1

Holding someone in contempt of Congress is one of the most serious and formal actions

our Committee can take, and it should not be used as a political tool to generate press as part of

an election-year witch hunt against the Obama Administration. Leaking a draft contempt citation

that Members of our Committee have never seen suggests that you are more interested in

perpetuating your partisan political feud in the press than in obtaining any specific substantive

information relating to the Committee's investigation. These actions undermine the credibility of

the Committee, as well as the integrity and validity of any contempt actions the Committee

ultimately may choose to adopt in the future.

Unfortunately, your latest actions appear to be part of a larger and more troubling pattern.

Last July, you boasted with respect to a different investigation that your aggressive actions

against the President and the White House would be "good theater."2 Similarly, one of your

Republicans Seek to Hold Attorney General in Contempt Over Fast and Furious, Los

Angeles Times (Apr. 26, 2012) (online at www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-naholder-contempt-20120427,0,3641424.story).

House Panel to Probe DNC's Obama Ad, Washington Times (July 25, (online at

 l/jul/25/issa-panel-will-probe-dnc-obama-campaignvideo/).

2048 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
The Honorable Darrell E. Issa

Page 2 

subcommittee chairmen asserted that investigating Solyndra was designed to influence the

upcoming Presidential election, stating, "Ultimately, we'll stop it on Election Day.3

I strongly believe in fair and even-handed oversight if there are credible allegations of

 of whether those implicated are Democrats or the

official resources provided to this Committee by U.S. taxpayers must not be used for partisan

political purposes.

As you know, in January, I issued a 90-page staff report documenting in detail how

Operation Fast and Furious was the latest in a series of misguided gunwalking operations that

originated in 2006 in the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms,

and Explosives. As the report explained, these operations continued for five years until our

Committee exposed and ended them, an accomplishment for which I have commended you. 4

Contrary to your repeated claims, the report explained that the Committee has obtained

no evidence that the Attorney General authorized, approved of, or was aware of gunwalking.

None of the two dozen witnesses interviewed by the Committee contradict that finding.

For all of these reasons, I request that you immediately provide to me and all other

Members of the Committee a copy of the same draft contempt citation that was provided to

Speaker Boehner's office and the Los Angeles Times, and that you strive to ensure the fairness

and legitimacy of our proceedings and actions.

I continue to hope that we can work together to obtain any additional information

necessary to our investigation in a cooperative and bipartisan manner that does not compromise

ongoing criminal investigations and prosecutions. Thank you for your consideration of this

request.

Sincerely,

3

Jim Jordan Suggests Elections Drive Solyndra Investigation, Post (Apr. 27,

 (online at

elections_n_1372205.html).

 Report of the Minority Staff, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,

Fatally Flawed: Five Years of Gunwalking in Arizona (January (online at

 gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5575&Ite

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May 2012

May 2012

2053 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
Assistant Secretary of Legislative Affairs 

U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

Washington, DC 20528 

May 4, 2012 

The Honorable Darrell Issa The Honorable Charles E. Grassley 

Chairman Ranking Member 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Judiciary 

U.S. House of Representatives United States Senate 

Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20510 

Dear Chairman Issa and Senator Grassley: 

 I am writing in response to your April 23, 2012 letter to Secretary Napolitano regarding 

the Operation Fast and Furious investigation. 

Since your first inquiry into this matter, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security 

(DHS) has endeavored to respond expeditiously to your requests. On seven different occasions, 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) employees have briefed Congressional 

offices and, on three separate occasions, have briefed members of your staff about the Bureau of 

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)-led investigation. ICE has also responded to 

written questions posed by your staff. DHS has been gathering the information you requested 

and will continue to keep your staff apprised of our progress. 

 With regard to the case file you reference, ICE and your staff continue to be in regular 

contact. As you know, producing a law enforcement case file of this type can be particularly 

challenging for the following reasons: 

The investigation was run by an interagency task force, rather than by one agency; 

The task force was led by an agency other than ICE; 

As this investigation is currently under an ongoing prosecution in Federal Court, 

divulging any information prior to a thorough and substantive vetting could jeopardize 

the success of the prosecution; 

 The file contains a substantial amount of law enforcement and investigation sensitive 

information that must be protected; and 

The file contains information received from confidential sources whose security would be 

compromised if their involvement is revealed. 

ICE is working expeditiously to make the case file available for review, and ICE and U.S. 

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are gathering the other information requested in your 

letter. While they gather this information, ICE and CBP employees remain prepared to brief 

your staff on the contents of the documents, where possible, to assist you in your investigation. 

As to requests 3-5 in your letter, we will continue to work diligently and expeditiously to get this 

material to you. 

2054 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
With regard to your requests for emails between the Secretary and the Attorney General 

or other DOJ employees about the death of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, we have 

determined that no such emails exist. In the meantime, if I can be of assistance in any other way, 

please do not hesitate to contact me at 202-447-5890. 

 Respectfully, 

 Nelson Peacock 

 Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs 

cc: The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member 

 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

 U.S. House of Representatives 

 The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman 

 Committee on the Judiciary 

 United States Senate 

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June 2012

June 2012

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June 14, 2012 

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION 

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

Attorney General 

U.S. Department of Justice 

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, D.C. 20530 

Dear Attorney General Holder: 

 

Tuesday, in response to Senator Cornyn’s call for your resignation, you 

responded, in part, with the following statement: 

If you want to talk about Fast and Furious, I’m the Attorney General that 

put an end to the misguided tactics that were used in Fast and Furious. An 

Attorney General who I suppose you would hold in higher regard was 

briefed on these kinds of tactics in an operation called Wide Receiver and 

did nothing to stop them – nothing. Three hundred guns, at least, walked 

in that instance. 

This is a serious charge. However, as far as I’m aware, the Justice Department has 

produced nothing to date that indicates any former Attorney General was briefed on 

Operation Wide Receiver. 

I am aware that the Justice Department produced a memorandum to Attorney 

General Mukasey in preparation for a November 16, 2007, meeting with Mexican 

Attorney General Medina Mora.1 At no point does this memo mention Operation Wide 

Receiver, in which over 300 guns were allowed to walk to Mexico. Instead, the memo 

appears to refer to a case called Hernandez, which involved a planned controlled 

delivery – not intentional gunwalking. 

 

1 Memo to the Attorney General, “Meeting of the Attorney General with Mexican Attorney General Medina 

Mora” (Nov. 16, 2007) [HOGR HRNDZ 003240]. 

2105 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

 June 14, 2012 

 Page 2 of 2 

 Documents the Justice Department has produced have indicated that the 

gunwalking in Operation Wide Receiver was brought to the attention of Assistant 

Attorney General Lanny Breuer in April 2010 by his deputy, Jason Weinstein. Breuer’s 

response, according to a contemporaneous e-mail from Criminal Division Gang Unit 

Chief James Trusty, was simply that he “want[ed] us to meet with [ATF] at some point 

so they know the bad stuff that could come out.”2 Weinstein subsequently indicated to 

ATF Deputy Director William Hoover: “The reason we wanted to meet with you before 

charging is that the case has [two] aspects that could create media challenges and we 

wanted to talk through them first.”3 I have called for Breuer’s resignation in part 

because, the evidence so far shows that he is the highest-ranking government official 

who was personally informed about gunwalking in any case, and he did nothing to put a 

stop to it. 

If the Justice Department has documentation about Operation Wide Receiver 

which it has not yet produced and which indicate a higher level of awareness of 

gunwalking than has previously been indicated, such evidence should be produced 

immediately. Given the gravity of these allegations, I would appreciate a response by 

Monday, June 18, 2012. If you have any questions concerning this matter, please 

contact Tristan Leavitt of my staff at (202) 224-5225. 

 Sincerely, 

 Charles E. Grassley 

 Ranking Member 

 

2 E-mail from James Trusty, Acting Chief, Gang Unit, Criminal Division, DOJ, to Kevin Carwile, Chief, 

Capital Case Unit, Criminal Division, DOJ (Apr. 19, 2010) [HOGR 003451] (emphasis added). 

3 E-mail from Jason Weinstein, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, DOJ, to William 

Hoover, Deputy Director, ATF (Apr. 20, 2010) [HOGR 003452].

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June 20, 2012 

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION 

President Barack Obama 

The White House 

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20500 

Dear Mr. President: 

 This morning, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

began considering a contempt citation against Attorney General Holder for his refusal to 

deliver documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. As you know, two guns that 

federal law enforcement allowed to be illegally purchased and trafficked to Mexico as 

part of that operation were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol Agent Brian 

Terry on December 14, 2010. I have been seeking documents related to this matter from 

the Justice Department since January 2011. 

 At the last minute before the House Committee proceedings began this morning, 

I received notice that you were claiming executive privilege. After 18 months of 

investigation and interaction with Justice Department officials on this matter, this was 

the first indication that anyone at the Department or the White House believed the 

documents being sought were subject to executive privilege claims. Last week, I 

questioned the Attorney General about a specific example of a document that I and the 

House Committee have been seeking and whether there could be a legitimate claim of 

executive privilege over that document and others like it. The document I referenced is 

an internal email from the then-Acting Director of ATF to people at ATF and DOJ 

headquarters. 

 The Attorney General was not clear in response to my question whether he 

believed that executive privilege could be asserted with regard to that document or 

others like it. Rather than executive privilege, the Attorney General talked about 

“deliberative process.” He indicated a willingness to provide that document and others 

like it, if the possibility of contempt were to be taken off the table. Yet this morning, it 

appears that you may be claiming executive privilege over the very same type of 

document—internal Justice Department communications not involving the White 

House—that the Attorney General said he was willing to provide. 

 Can you please provide a more precise description of the scope of your executive 

privilege claim? Are you asserting it only with regard to documents called for by the 

2118 Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation Appendix II: Correspondence
President Barack Obama 

 June 20, 2012 

 Page 2 of 2

subpoena that may have involved communications with you? Or are you extending your 

claim to records of purely internal Justice Department communications, not involving 

the White House? Please provide a more detailed description of the documents that you 

are or are not asserting executive privilege to protect. 

 Sincerely, 

 Charles E. Grassley 

 Ranking Member 

cc: Darrell Issa 

 Chairman 

Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 

U.S. House of Representatives 

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June 25, 2012 

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION 

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

Attorney General 

U.S. Department of Justice 

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20530 

Dear Attorney General Holder: 

I have received information that the Department of Justice headquarters may be 

providing boxes of Operation Fast and Furious documents to individuals at the 

headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Given the fact that the 

Justice Department has refused to produce large categories of documents to Congress, 

this is disturbing information. Since the DHS Inspector General (IG) is conducting its 

own investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, it also raises questions as to whether 

such records may have also been made available to the DHS IG. 

Accordingly, please respond to the following questions: 

1. Have documents regarding Operation Fast and Furious been provided to anyone 

in Secretary Napolitano’s office? If so, which documents and for what purpose? 

Have such documents also been provided to the DHS IG? 

2. Have documents regarding Operation Fast and Furious been provided to anyone 

at DHS? If so, which documents and for what purpose? Have such documents 

also been provided to the DHS IG? 

3. Are any of the documents among those that are responsive to the October 12, 

2011 subpoena, but have not been produced to the Committees? If so, which 

documents? 

Thank you in advance for ensuring your response arrives no later than July 2, 

2012. If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact Tristan Leavitt of 

my staff at (202) 224-5225. 

 Sincerely, 

 Charles E. Grassley 

 Ranking Member

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June 29, 2012 

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION 

The Honorable Ronald C. Machen, Jr. 

United States Attorney 

District of Columbia 

United States Department of Justice 

555 Fourth Street, NW 

Washington, DC 20530 

Dear U.S. Attorney Machen: 

Last night, the Deputy Attorney General sent a letter to the Speaker of the House 

of Representatives saying: 

The Department has determined that the Attorney General's response to 

the subpoena issued by the Committee on Oversight and Government 

Reform does not constitute a crime, and therefore the Department will not 

bring the congressional contempt citation before a grand jury or take any 

other action to prosecute the Attorney General.1

It is odd that this letter arrived before the House of Representatives had even 

transmitted the contempt resolution adopted yesterday to you as the “appropriate 

United States Attorney” under 2 U.S.C. § 194. Under that statute, the appropriate U.S. 

Attorney’s “duty . . . shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.”2

This language is quite clear and simple to comprehend. It is not optional.3 

Moreover, the law clearly assigns that duty to you and to no one else. It could have 

assigned the duty to the Attorney General or to the Deputy Attorney General or some 

other official. But, it does not. As for the ultimate decision to proceed with a 

prosecution after you have exercised your duty to present the matter to a grand jury, 

 

1 Letter from Deputy Attorney General James Cole to John Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of 

Representatives (June 28, 2012), at 2. 

2 2 U.S.C. § 194 (2006) (emphasis added). 

3 See F.T.C. v. Tarriff, 584 F.3d 1088, 1090-1091 (D.C. Cir. 2009) (defining shall: “It is fixed law that 

words of statutes or regulations must be given their ‘ordinary, contemporary, common meaning.’ 

Williams v. Taylor, 529 U.S. 420, 431 (2000). It is also fixed usage that ‘shall’ means something on the 

order of ‘must’ or ‘will’. See, e.g., Black’s Law Dictionary 1407 (8th ed. 2004) (defining ‘shall’ as ‘has a 

duty to; more broadly, is required to’).”).

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The Honorable Ronald C. Machen, Jr. 

 June 29, 2012 

 Page 2 of 4 

that decision is for the citizens empaneled in the grand jury, not for you or for the 

Deputy Attorney General or for “the Department” generally to make. 

 The Deputy Attorney General’s letter cites the President’s assertion of executive 

privilege as relieving you of your duty to present the contempt citation to a grand jury.4 

Arguably, that may be true. But, it can only be true to the extent that the assertion of 

executive privilege is valid as to every single document sought by the House subpoena 

that has been withheld. The Deputy Attorney General relies on a 1984 Office of Legal 

Counsel (OLC) opinion, which argues that the duty of a U.S. Attorney to present a 

contempt citation to a grand jury could not be constitutionally applied where there is a 

valid assertion of privilege.5 However, the OLC opinion clearly sets forth “the caveat 

that our conclusions are limited to the unique circumstances that gave rise to these 

questions in late 1982 and early 1983.”6 According to the OLC opinion, “a United States 

Attorney is not required to refer a contempt citation in these circumstances to a grand 

jury or otherwise to prosecute an Executive Branch official who is carrying out the 

President's instruction in a factual context such as that presented by the December 16, 

1982, contempt citation.”7 Whether or not you are ultimately required by law to refer 

the contempt citation, nothing in the OLC opinion prohibits you from determining 

whether the facts here are like those in 1984. Since it is your clear duty under the 

statute, it is you who must undertake an independent assessment of the facts and 

circumstances of this case to determine whether there may be important differences 

between that case and this one, and therefore, the extent to which you may or may not 

be relieved of your duty by the assertion of executive privilege. 

It does not appear possible that you could have undertaken any such independent 

assessment. The Deputy Attorney General’s letter has put the cart before the horse. As 

you may or may not know, the Justice Department and the White House have refused to 

provide a particularized description of the documents being withheld or a description of 

the documents over which executive privilege has been asserted. No one can reasonably 

make an intelligent judgment as to the validity of a privilege claim without a specific 

description of the documents in question, at the very least. As the District Court for the 

District of Columbia recognized when it considered the contempt citations of White 

House officials Josh Bolton and Harriet Miers: 

[B]oth the Court and the parties will need some way to evaluate privilege 

assertions going forward in the context of this litigation. More specifically, 

if the Court is called upon to decide the merits of any specific claim of 

privilege, it will need a better description of the documents withheld than 

the one found in Mr. Clement's letter of June 27, 2007.8

 

4 Id. at 1. 5 8 Op. O.L.C. 101 (1984) (“Prosecution for Contempt of Congress”). 6 Id. at 102. 7 Id. (emphasis added). 8 Committee on Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives v. Miers, 558 F.Supp.2d 53, 107 (D.D.C., 2008). 

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 June 29, 2012 

 Page 3 of 4 

The same principle applies to you in order to evaluate the privilege assertion and thus 

assess your duty under the statute. Ideally, you would undertake an actual examination 

of the documents in order to make an independent assessment of the validity of any 

privilege claim. 

The Attorney General has assigned to you the duty of investigating a series of 

national security leaks. The Attorney General and several members of the Senate 

Judiciary Committee expressed supreme confidence in your ability to act independently 

and take the facts wherever they lead, regardless of the political consequences or any 

pressure to pull punches that might come from the political leadership of the 

Department or from the White House. Your independence and integrity were cited as 

the reason that there was supposedly no necessity to appoint a special prosecutor. This 

matter gives you an opportunity to live up to that high praise and prove your 

independence. 

However, the way this has been handled so far suggests no such independence at 

all. Before you have even received the citation, before you have even had a chance to 

understand the scope of the documents and the privilege claim at issue, the Deputy 

Attorney General has already announced the decision of “the Department” not to 

proceed as required by the contempt statute. Therefore, so that Congress can have a 

better understanding of the procedural standing of this matter, please provide answers 

to the following questions: 

1) Have you had any communications with the Deputy Attorney General, the 

Attorney General, or other senior Department political appointees about 

the contempt citation or about Operation Fast and Furious? If so, provide 

a detailed description of those communications and when they occurred. 

2) Have you been instructed not to present the contempt citation to a grand 

jury? If so, when, by whom, and on what grounds? 

3) Have you independently decided not to present the contempt citation to a 

grand jury? If so, when and on what basis? 

4) Have you conducted an independent review of the documents being 

withheld from Congress by the Attorney General in order to assess the 

validity of any privilege claims? If so, when did that review occur? If not, 

please explain why not. 

5) Have you been provided with copies of the documents the Attorney 

General is withholding from Congress or a specific list of the documents 

being withheld? If so, have you conducted an independent analysis of the 

executive privilege claim? If not, how can you conduct an independent 

assessment of the validity of any executive privilege claim or make any 

independent judgment about your duty under the contempt statute to 

present the contempt citation to a grand jury? 

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The Honorable Ronald C. Machen, Jr. 

 June 29, 2012 

 Page 4 of 4 

Please provide written responses to each of these questions as soon as possible, 

but no later than July 3, 2012. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important 

matter. If you have any questions concerning this matter, please contact Jason Foster of 

my staff at (202) 224-5225. 

 Sincerely, 

 Charles E. Grassley 

 Ranking Member

cc: The Honorable John A. Boehner 

The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy 

The Honorable Darrell E. Issa 

The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings 

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July 2012

July 2012

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July 3, 2012 

Via Electronic Transmission 

The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

Attorney General 

U.S. Department of Justice 

950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW 

Washington, DC 20530 

Dear Attorney General Holder: 

 The investigation into Operation Fast and Furious has focused on two specific areas: 

(1) When did individuals within the Department of Justice (DOJ/Department) become 

aware of the tactics and (2) How did DOJ provide false information to Congress regarding 

the allegations of gunwalking. 

I believe the Department should have been abundantly aware of allegations of 

gunwalking as there was more than one ATF agent providing information to Department 

components before the February 4, 2011, letter was sent to Congress. 

 Specifically, on February 2, 2011, my investigators contacted an ATF Special Agent 

who worked out of the Phoenix Field Division, Group VII office, and was familiar with 

Operation Fast and Furious. The conversation centered on the ATF Agent’s recollection of 

how Fast and Furious was executed and his recollection confirmed the allegations my office 

had heard from other ATF whistleblowers. What was unknown until late 2011 was that this 

ATF Agent produced a memorandum on February 3, 2011, which documented his 

discussion about Fast and Furious. The subject of the memorandum is, “Contact with 

Congressional Investigators,” and I have enclosed it within this letter. 

 This Fast and Furious memorandum traveled rapidly through ATF’s chain of 

command. The memorandum was emailed on February 3, 2011, from the Dallas Field 

Division to Phoenix SAC William Newell and Deputy Assistant Director for Field Operations 

William McMahon. Records that the Justice Department has withheld from Congress, 

which were only made available for review in camera, show an email chain attaching this 

memorandum was sent to Assistant Director of Field Operations Mark Chait at ATF 

headquarters by the afternoon of February 3, 2011. 

 

According to ATF personnel, the memorandum was discussed by high level ATF 

personnel and possibly forwarded to DOJ headquarters on February 3, 2011. Specifically, it 

has been alleged that individuals within the Deputy Attorney General’s (DAG’s) office and 

the Office of Legislative Affairs (OLA) at the Department were aware of or actually read the 

memorandum before the Department’s February 4, 2011, letter was sent. Some individuals 

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The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

 July 3, 2012 

 Page 2 of 3 

who spoke with my office claim they were “alarmed” by the substance of the memorandum 

and it caused such a stir that ATF planned to put a panel together to address the allegations 

but someone within DOJ suppressed the idea. 

 

The possibility that DOJ was aware of this memorandum on February 3, 2011, and 

still sent the erroneous letter to Congress on February 4, 2011, raises more questions about 

DOJ’s claim that faulty information from Department components inadvertently led to the 

false letter. This was direct, documented information from street level agents in a far better 

position to know the facts than the senior supervisory personnel whom DOJ claims to have 

relied upon for information about the allegations. 

Discovering how high up the chain of command inside the Justice Department the 

memorandum was reviewed has not been easy. The Department has not made available 

certain individuals who could corroborate what my office has been told. Moreover, it is 

unclear whether the set of “deliberative” materials about the drafting of the February 4, 

2011, letter that the Department produced to Congress constitutes a complete set of all 

relevant documents or whether other relevant documents from the pre-February 4th 

timeframe may have been withheld. Consequently, please answer the following questions: 

1) Have all records relating to the February 3, 2011, memorandum been gathered and 

preserved by the Justice Department? If not, why not? If so, please describe the 

nature and volume of those records. 

2) Will you produce those records to Congress? If not, please explain why not. 

3) Which DOJ personnel received a copy of the February 3, 2011, memorandum prior to 

February 4, 2011? 

4) Which DOJ personnel were aware of the memorandum before the February 4, 2011 

reply was sent to me? Please provide all records related to these questions, or certify 

that all relevant documents have already been provided. 

I would appreciate a written response by no later than July 17, 2012. If you have any 

questions concerning this matter, please contact Brian Downey of my staff at (202) 224-

5225. 

Sincerely, 

 Charles E. Grassley 

 Ranking Member 

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The Honorable Eric H. Holder, Jr. 

 July 3, 2012 

 Page 3 of 3 

Enclosure 

cc: The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy, Chairman 

 Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate 

 The Honorable Darrell E. Issa, Chairman 

 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives 

 The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member 

 Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, U.S. House of Representatives 

 The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General 

 U.S. Department of Justice 

 B. Todd Jones, Acting Director 

 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives 

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