Has DOJ Given Congress Everything Related to Fast and Furious?

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I have heard reports that DOJ has turned over all documents related to the Fast and Furious operation – that the only documents being withheld are those after the operation shut down.  Is this true?

The short answer is ABSOLUTELY NOT.  The longer answer follows.

The DOJ has indeed handed over approximately 8% of the documents requested by Congress (the House Oversight and Reform Committee).  All of these documents are dated before DOJ sent the letter containing false denials that later was “withdrawn” (before Feb. 15, 2011).  There is only one problem with the documents: They have been so heavily redacted that in some cases all that is left is who generated the document.  Hundreds of pages are completely blacked out.  Those that are not contain the same information available on the Internet.  There is no way that the committee can determine who is responsible to this fiasco when those who may be responsible are blacking out anything they want and then falsely claiming that they have cooperated.

Furthermore, just because a document was generated after the program stopped, that does not mean that it cannot be useful in determining what went wrong and how to prevent it.  In addition, congress was lied to and has every right to determine who is responsible for the false information.

Finally, if the administration had really handed over “everything having to do with the operation” why are we still in the dark?  We do not know who thought this up.  We do not know how it was supposed to work.  We do not know who the highest person with knowledge of gunwalking was.  Most of all, we do not know who approved the operation.  If the administration had really handed over “everything” we would know all these things.

In reality, the administration has been hiding something from the beginning and they are still hiding something.  That’s the bottom line.

Here are just a couple of links in support of the above:

Rep. Issa on “Face the Nation” 10-16-2011

Fast and Furious: Rep. Burton to Holder, 'There Are Things You Don't Want Us to See'

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