The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) has ditched its original plan to destroy gunrunning evidence from Operation Fast and Furious after concerted pressure from Republicans in the House Judiciary committee.
In a tweet published on December 19, 2022, the House Judiciary GOP noted the following:
#BREAKING: After @Jim_Jordan demanded that the ATF not destroy evidence related to Operation Fast & Furious, the agency reversed course and informed us that it will now preserve the evidence related to the Obama/Biden scandal.
Initially, the ATF plan to destroy evidence of firearms used under the Fast and Furious program first surfaced in early December. In response, House Judiciary ranking Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent the ATF a letter on December 6, 2022 calling on it to stop this decision. "Although the ATF apparently intends to forget its dangerous misconduct in Operation Fast and Furious, the scandal is still a matter of public concern," Jordan said in the letter sent to ATF Director Steve Dettelbach on December 6. "Given the potential for ongoing criminal and possible civil actions, it is not in the interest of justice for the ATF to destroy potential evidence associated with Operation Fast and Furious. I request that you immediately take steps to preserve all evidence associated with Operation Fast and Furious and confirm in writing that you have done so,” said Jordan.
"The Biden Administration is coming for your Second Amendment rights," the Congressman said in a Facebook post published in early November addressing the aforementioned concerns about pistol braces, frames, and receivers. “We won’t let them off the hook.”
Towards the end of November, Jordan sent an incisive letter to Dettelbach informing him that changes at the agency will have to be made. "If these requests remain outstanding at the beginning of the 118th Congress, the Committee may be forced to resort to compulsory process to obtain the documents," Jordan spelled out in his November 28 letter. “In addition, to advance our oversight, we may require prompt testimony from ATF employees. We expect your unfettered cooperation in arranging for the Committee to receive testimony from ATF employees.”
Operation Fast and Furious originally involved federal agents presiding over the sale of north of 2,000 firearms to supposed straw purchasers. Straw purchases are firearms transactions that involve an individual with a clean criminal record who buys firearms on behalf of an individual barred from buying a firearm due to being a convicted felon, a juvenile, mentally ill, receiving a domestic violence conviction, or falling under any category of prohibited person at the state or federal level. Straw purchasers violate federal law by issuing a false statement to Federal Firearm License holders (FFLs) regarding a material fact by providing false information on firearm transaction records (ATF Form 4473) or putting forward false identification related to the purchase.
The government’s intention was to use the weapons to track down and capture Mexican drug cartel members. However, this plan went south when the firearms were used in various crimes, which culminated in the shooting and killing of US Border Patrol agent Brian Terry on the night of December 14, 2010. Earlier in 2022, Jordan noted that the Mexican government charged seven individuals with crimes connected to Fast and Furious. Back on January 8, 2020, US District Judge David C. Bury sentenced a man, Heraclio Osorio-Arellanes, to a mandatory life sentence for fatally shooting Terry.
