Press Releases

Today, the Inspector General of the United States Department of Justice issued a report entitled, “A Review of ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters.” The tactic of ‘gun walking’ took place in Operation Wide Receiver, initiated in 2006, and in Operation Fast and Furious, initiated in 2009.  The report detailed that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Headquarters, the Phoenix Field Division, as well as the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona, share primary responsibility for these lapses in judgment and public safety.  Senior leadership at the Department of Justice was not aware of the use of these tactics at the time. Representative John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) released this statement in response to the report:

“I praise the Inspector General for conducting a thorough investigation and producing a comprehensive report totaling 512 pages, which was requested by Attorney General Eric Holder in 2011.

"This report validates the testimony that Attorney General Eric Holder gave before the House Judiciary Committee on several occasions. The report further confirms that the errors in judgment related to the misguided tactic of gun walking were concentrated at the field level in Arizona.  There is no evidence that Attorney General Holder knew of or approved these tactics at the time, and he consistently maintained that all of this was unacceptable.

"Drug cartels in Mexico continue to wage a campaign of violence that is shocking in its brutality, and the cartels obtain many of their firearms from the United States. We must now move past this investigation and refocus our efforts on ending the urgent problem of illegal trafficking of firearms to Mexico.”

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