Fast & Furious Uproar Forces DOJ Division Chief to Resign
Published January 25, 2013
Fox News Latino
A high-ranking member of the U.S. Department of Justice plans to resign from his post in the wake of the controversy surrounding the bungled Fast & Furious gun running operation.
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said Friday in a statement that Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer will step down from his job as chief of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Lanny Breuer’s resignation is long overdue,” Issa said is a press release. “Breuer was at the heart of several critical failures in Operation Fast and Furious: he knew about reckless tactics, failed to take seriously allegations that they were continuing, and only owned up to his failures once they were publicly exposed.”
The government's Fast and Furious gun-smuggling operation allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns to walk away from gun shops with weapons rather than be arrested -- and then freely smuggle them into Mexico.
Operation Fast and Furious has drawn heavy criticism as agents lost track of hundreds of weapons, including two used in a shootout that killed Border Patrol agent Brian Terry along the Arizona-Mexico border in December 2010.
Authorities intended to track the guns in Mexico. Two rifles found at the scene where Terry was killed were bought by a member of the gun-smuggling ring being investigated.
“Inspector General’s report admonished Breuer for failing to inform the Deputy Attorney General or the Attorney General when he learned, in April 2010, that the reckless tactic of gunwalking was used in a prior operation,” Issa added. “Had Breuer taken any action whatsoever, Fast and Furious would have ended eight months sooner than it did. This resignation paves the way for needed new leadership in the Criminal Division.”
Fast & Furious Uproar Forces DOJ Division Chief to Resign | Fox News Latino
DOJ criminal division chief Breuer resigns
By Jordy Yager - 01/30/13 12:54 PM ET
The Hill
Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer announced his resignation as the head of the Justice Department’s (DOJ) criminal division on Wednesday.
Breuer had faced steady Republican calls for him to step down over his handling of a botched gun-tracking operation, but Attorney General Eric Holder lauded his top lieutenant’s performance and “unwavering commitment” to the DOJ.
“Lanny has led one of the most successful and aggressive criminal divisions in the history of the Department of Justice, accomplishing record penalties in corruption cases at home and abroad and dismantling major organized crime and healthcare fraud networks around the country while also protecting the integrity of our banking systems and fighting financial fraud,” Holder said in a statement.
“Throughout his tenure, Lanny has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the mission of this Department, and I want to thank him for his dedication and exceptional service.”
The DOJ applauded Breuer’s work along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying, “the criminal division has made great strides in the fight against violent crime along the southwest border and across the country.”
Breuer has brought charges against the alleged killers of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata and those allegedly responsible for the 2010 killing of a U.S. Consular official in Mexico, along with hundreds of others involved in drug and gang warfare, according to the DOJ’s statement accompanying Breuer’s announcement.
Calls for his resignation began last Congress amid Republican investigations into Operation Fast and Furious, which failed to track nearly 2,000 weapons sold to suspected criminals in the Southwest. A weapon from the operation was found at the murder scene of a Border Patrol agent.
At the request of Attorney General Eric Holder, the DOJ’s inspector general completed a lengthy report on the operation.
The IG’s report found that four top DOJ officials — Breuer, Holder’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein and former acting Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler — should have raised concerns sooner with their superiors about flaws within Fast and Furious.
Breuer “did not authorize any of the investigative activities” in Fast and Furious, according to the report. But he was aware that a previous operation under President George W. Bush’s administration, "Wide Receiver," had used similar “gun walking” tactics, which he described as “obviously flawed,” the report stated. And yet, upon learning of Fast and Furious, the officials did not take appropriate action.
“Given the significance of this issue and the fact that [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] ... reports to the deputy attorney general, we believe that Breuer should have promptly informed the deputy attorney general or the attorney general about the matter in April 2010. Breuer failed to do so,” the report states.
The DOJ on Wednesday cast a wider view of Breuer’s tenure with the department, citing a plethora of successes that occurred under his watch, including the development of a program guarding against foreign corrupt officials hiding their ill-gotten spoils in the United States and increasing the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
Breuer’s resignation comes in the wake of a PBS "Frontline" investigation that aired last week criticizing him for not prosecuting Wall Street powerbrokers for their role in the financial crisis.
But combating financial fraud has been at the top of Breuer’s accomplishments, the DOJ said, citing his role in successfully prosecuting and landing heavy prison sentences for the former heads of Taylor, Bean & Whitaker and Stanford International Bank.
The agency also highlighted the criminal division’s successful investigation of the London Interbank Offered Rate, which has led to nearly $2 billion in criminal penalties and a guilty plea by a UBS subsidiary. A separate DOJ unit under Breuer’s watch has reaped $3.1 billion in criminal forfeitures from major financial institutions guilty of money-laundering.
DOJ criminal division chief Breuer resigns - The Hill
