DOJ criminality deepens as report shows targeting of Fast and Furious whistleblower

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Fast and Furious, DOJ, whistleblower

(NaturalNews) The criminality and illegitimacy of the federal government continues to grow, this time with the disclosure that a former U.S. attorney intentionally released a document aimed at discrediting a whistleblower in the "Operation Fast and Furious" scandal.

A new report from the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General has confirmed that Dennis Burke, former U.S. attorney for Arizona, leaked a document that was intended to smear John Dodson, a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Department of Justice agency which launched the operation that saw thousands of semi-automatic, military-style rifles purchased in the U.S. by straw buyers fall into the hands of Mexican drug gangs.

From the report:

On July 8, 2011, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) received information from an attorney representing John Dodson, a Special Agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), concerning the alleged unauthorized disclosure of sensitive ATF information. According to Dodson's attorney, Dodson had received an e-mail from a Fox News producer asking for comment about excerpts from an internal ATF investigative memorandum that Dodson had drafted and which described a proposed undercover operation for an ATF firearms investigation...

Dodson's attorney alleged that officials within the DOJ had disclosed the memorandum to retaliate against Dodson for his criticism of the conduct of the firearms trafficking investigation referred to as Operation Fast and Furious. On June 15, 2011, shortly before the alleged unauthorized disclosure, Dodson and other ATF agents had expressed their concerns about Operation Fast and Furious during testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Sorry - it was just a 'mistake'

The DOJ IG report went on to state that the office launched an investigation shortly after receiving the complaint.

According to details of the investigation, on Aug. 16, 2011, Burke contacted an IG investigative counsel by phone to say he had indeed released the memorandum to the media, adding that the reporter "seemed to be familiar with the contents of the ... memorandum before Burke provided it to him," the report said.

In tracking down the details of the disclosure, investigators solicited sworn statements from 150 of 152 employees who had been identified by the Justice Department as having had access to documents provided to congressional panels looking into the failed operation. Of that figure, the IG's office singled out five for additional interviews because they had indicated some knowledge of the memorandum's release.

In its report, the IG concluded that indeed "Burke's conduct in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to be inappropriate for a Department employee and wholly unbefitting a U.S. Attorney."

"We are referring to OPR our finding that Burke violated Department policy in disclosing the Dodson memorandum to a member of the media for a determination of whether Burke's conduct violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for the state bars in which Burke is a member," the IG report said.

Burke eventually resigned his position as U.S. Attorney following the incident, in August 2011. He became the first major Justice Department official to leave his or her position in the Fast and Furious scandal.

In interviews with congressional investigators after the fact, Burke said he now views his leaking of the memorandum as a "mistake."

Besides uncovering Burke's involvement in leaking the document, the IG investigation also turned up emails between senior Department of Justice officials in which they discussed smearing Dodson.

One of those officials was Tracy Scmaler, director of the Justice Department's Office of Public Affairs. She resigned her position at DOJ "after emails uncovered through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request showed that she worked with left wing advocacy group Media Matters for America to smear whistleblowers and members of Congress and the media who sought to investigate DOJ scandals under Attorney General Eric Holder," Breitbart News reported.

Rule by executive fiat

Obama is being blamed for many of these scandals and, as president and head of the Executive Branch of government, he is certainly culpable.

But only to an extent.

Granted, Obama has worked overtime to expand the power of the presidency, but he inherited an office whose role had already been enlarged far beyond anything the founding fathers envisioned for the Executive Branch. But Congress is culpable as well, for the Legislative Branch has, over the past century, relegated its lawmaking authority to the plethora of federal bureaucracies it has created.

And the president controls them.

Decrying bureaucracy and advocating for smaller government shouldn't be a political slogan. It should be a demand of every freedom-minded, liberty loving American. That's because we are no longer being "represented" by our elected leaders, we are being "ruled" by federal agencies.

That is not the "republican form of government" our Constitution guarantees.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.breitbart.com

http://www.justice.gov/oig/reports/2013/s1305.pdf

http://www.breitbart.com