Two U.S. Justice Department officials were forced to step down on Wednesday when the Inspector General made public the findings of a 19-month investigation into the botched “Operation Fast and Furious.”
In this illegal gun-walking operation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) purposely allowed at least 2,000 firearms to fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs. The purported aim was to identify and eliminate arms-trafficking networks, but the weapons were never recovered and no arrests were ever made.
In his report, Michael Horowitz criticized those behind the operation for “a series of misguided strategies, tactics, errors in judgment and management failures.”Within minutes of the report’s release, former ATF chief Kenneth Melson announced his retirement, while Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein was also forced to resign. However the report cleared Attorney General Eric Holder, having unearthed no evidence that he knew about the gun-running operation.