July 6, 2011
A.T.F. Official Defends Role in Criticized Gun Operation
By SEAN COLLINS WALSH
WASHINGTON -- Amid speculation that he would soon be removed from office, Kenneth E. Melson, the top official at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, met with Congressional staff members this week to defend himself.
Mr. Melson's account, provided on Monday, was described in a letter [1] written Tuesday by Representative Darrell Issa, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Senator Charles E. Grassley, the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The lawmakers have been investigating an A.T.F. program [2] called Operation Fast and Furious in which federal agents knowingly let weapons slip across the Mexican border in the hope of tracing them to drug cartels. Two of the guns later turned up in Arizona, where an American Border Patrol agent was killed in a shootout.
Mr. Melson said he had not been deeply involved in the operation "until after the public controversy," according to the letter, which was addressed to Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. The Justice Department houses the firearms bureau and is conducting its own Fast and Furious investigation.
In his account, Mr. Melson was "candid in admitting mistakes that his agency made" and said he had become "sick to his stomach when he obtained those documents and learned the full story," according to the letter.
Mr. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and Mr. Issa, Republican of California, have accused the Justice Department of obstructing their investigation into who authorized the operation, which was begun in fall 2009 by the Phoenix field division of the bureau.
Mr. Melson told committee staff members, the letter said, that he had wanted to cooperate with the investigation earlier but that the Justice Department had directed him and other officials "not to respond and took full control of replying to briefing and document requests from Congress." The congressmen added, "The result is that Congress only got the parts of the story that the department wanted us to hear."
An assistant attorney general, Ronald Weich, responded to Mr. Issa and Mr. Grassley in a letter on Wednesday, saying that "dozens of attorneys and reviewers" are working to comply with the broad subpoenas from Mr. Issa's committee and that more than 2,000 pages of documents have been made available. He said some material could not be released immediately because it contained information about investigations.
Mr. Melson was scheduled to be interviewed by Congressional investigators next Wednesday in the company of Justice Department lawyers. After news reports said he might be ousted, he hired a lawyer, Richard Cullen, and arranged to meet on Monday with staff members of the Oversight and Judiciary Committees.
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/us/politics/15guns.html