ATF Head Could Recommend Terminations, Suspensions Following Fast And Furious IG Report

Ryan J. Reilly

 

 

B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney the Obama administration put in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in the wake of the Fast and Furious scandal, told the Los Angeles Times that he would be making some termination or suspension recommendations to the Justice Department’s Office of Professional Responibility once an Inspector General report is issued on the botched anti-gun trafficking program.

The newspaper also obtained the House Oversight Committee’s deposition of former acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson, who told investigators that agents, field supervisors and his top commanders were to blame for not telling him that ATF let guns “walk” across the border to Mexico.

Jones, the new ATF head, seemed to suggest in an interview that Melson was more at fault than he indicated to investigators.

“Anybody, including Mr. Melson, who waits for things to happen or waits for information to come to them, that is something I personally am not a believer in,” Jones told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m a believer in management by walking around. If you’re not hearing it, you seek it out. And there are a lot of ways to do that other than sitting in your corner office waiting for memos to come in.”

Melson resigned his position as acting director of ATF in late August. He told congressional investigators that his intelligence official knew about the program but didn’t do enough to stop it or inform him.

“He didn’t come in and tell me, either,” Melson said. “And he’s on the same damn floor as I am.”


TPM