ATF sued for Fast and Furious docs

The conservative organization Judicial Watch announced Monday that it was suing the ATF for Fast and Furious records of communications between the agency and the White House.

Specifically, the group said that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit, seeking Fast and Furious records showing conversations between ATF officials and Kevin O’Reilly, the former White House Director of North American Affairs at the U.S. National Security Council.

In previous congressional testimony, ATF special agent in charge of the Phoenix office Bill Newell - who played a leading role in the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation - said he had shared information about the operation with O’Reilly, but did not go into further detail about their interactions.

“The Obama administration has clammed up on Fast and Furious. We’re having trouble getting almost anything out of them. No wonder, as the Fast and Furious lies and killings makes it one of the worst scandals in recent American history. The American people deserve to know what White House officials knew and when they knew it,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton, in a press release Monday detailing the lawsuit, which was filed June 6

The outside group’s latest move – part of its work as a conservative public interest group and government watchdog – comes as Attorney General Eric Holder and Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are negotiating a way to postpone a House vote censuring Holder. At issue are documents being withheld from House Republican investigating the Fast and Furious gun-walking scandal despite a Congressional subpoena. The Justice Department claims that internal deliberations are not subject to subpoena – consistent with the practices of previous administrations.

The Fast and Furious operation involved a practice called “gun-walking,” in which hundreds of guns were allowed to cross the border into Mexico. ATF officials had hoped to track the weapons to drug cartels and weapons smugglers, but ended up supplying them with firearms instead – including one gun that was linked to the scene of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry’s December 2010 shooting death.

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