Today the Obama administration sacrificed several key players in Operation Fast and Furious. That might not satisfy the key men in Congress.

The sacrificial lambs for Operation Fast and Furious

Kenneth Melson, acting ATF director and now sacrificial lamb for Operation Fast and Furious. Photo: BATFE.

The men who lost their jobs, or took lower-paying and/or lower-profile jobs, today are:

• Kenneth Melson, acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He will now become a Senior Advisor to the Attorney General for Forensic Science. His replacement: B. Todd Jones, US Attorney for Minnesota, who now will wear two hats.
• Dennis Burke, US Attorney for Arizona. He resigned today.
• Emory Hurley, Assistant US Attorney (Criminal Division) for Arizona. He will move to the civil division.

Three of the four original “whistleblowers” in the Phoenix ATF office will move out of that office. Two will move to Florida and the third to South Carolina.

The first hints of this came from Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner, and David Codrea, National Gun Rights Examiner. Then in rapidly accelerating order came reports from:

• Anthony Martin, National Conservative Examiner
• Pete Yost, Associated Press
• John Hayward, Human Events
• William LaJeunesse, Fox News.

What does that mean, going forward?

Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said that his investigation would go on. Michelle Malkin quoted him. He said that he still wants to know who else was responsible for the Fast and Furious scheme. (One US border patrol agent died in a gun battle last December. Two of the guns that authorities took from the scene were guns that ATF had let “walk” across the border to a Mexican drug cartel.) Issa particularly remembers Melson telling his committee that the Department of Justice was “protect[ing] its political appointees.” Issa specifically said that he does not want the DOJ to blame underlings for something their superiors did or ordered.

Translation: Attorney General Eric Holder threw Melson, Burke and Hurley under the bus. (Earlier he promoted three other men who ran Fast and Furious directly.) This does not satisfy Issa. Issa will keep looking under the rug. His target: Holder himself.

This corroborates this account from someone, seemingly inside the White House, who said that Eric Holder could lose his job. This source also said that the case against Holder might build slowly, and climax next year—in the middle of the Presidential election campaign.

Congress is out of session right now. The Oversight Committee last held a hearing on Operation Fast and Furious on July 26, 2011.

Tonight on Fox News’ Special Report, LaJeunesse said that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security also received regular reports on Operation Fast and Furious. This suggests that the scandal could affect more departments than only the Department of Justice.

Featured image: the Constitution of the United States. Photo: National Archives

Related:

• A Journalist’s Guide to Project Gunwalker, Parts One, Two, Three, and Four
• Promotions
• Incriminations
• Felonies
• Cover-ups continue
• Death threats
• Subpoenas
• Fast and Furious is not Gunrunner
• Cover-up
• The unraveling
• Throw-downs

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