By Joel Gehrke Commentary Staff Writer
House investigators have requested that Attorney General Eric Holder provide documentation and testimony about reports that a Department of Justice (DOJ) agency engaged in money laundering on behalf of drug cartels, according to a letter to DOJ expanding the Operation Fast and Furious investigation.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reportedly ran the program. "American agents, posing as smugglers, [apparently] assisted Mexican drug cartels in their illicit and deadly drug trade," House Oversight and Government Reform chair Darrell Issa, R-Calif., wrote in a letter Monday to Holder. "The existence of such a program again calls your leadership into question.
The New York Times reported Sunday that "U.S. drug agents launder profits of Mexican cartels," resulting in Issa's investigation. "These statements [in the story] suggest that U.S. undercover agents have been involved in laundering hundreds of millions of dollars," he explained.
Issa added that "it is almost unfathomable the degree to which the United States Government has made itself an accomplice to the Mexican drug trade, which has thus far left more than 40,000 people dead in Mexico since December 2006."
Holder is already scheduled to testify befoe the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday. Issa asked Holder "to arrange to provide a breifing to my staff no later than" 5 pm today.
Washington Examiner
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