By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
Staff Journalist
As Obama administration officials sink ever deeper into the scandal involving a mismanaged government-run firearms-trafficking operation known as “Fast and Furious” that resulted in the death of at least one law enforcement official, a reporter says White House officials are now screaming and cussing at her for staying on top of the story.
Sharyl Attkisson of CBS News said during an interview with popular conservative radio talk show host Laura Ingraham that various officials have become so upset over the increasingly damaging scandal that they have begun to scream and curse at her.
During the show, Ingraham asked Attkisson: “So they were literally screaming at you?”
“Yes. Well the DOJ [Department of Justice] woman was just yelling at me,” Atkisson said. “The guy from the White House on Friday night literally screamed at me and cussed at me.”
When asked who was the person at the Justice department who screamed at her, Atkisson said:
“Eric Schultz. Oh, the person screaming was [DOJ spokeswoman] Tracy Schmaler, she was yelling not screaming. And the person who screamed at me was Eric Schultz at the White House…….They say the Washington Post, the LA Times is reasonable, the New York Times is reasonable. I’m the only one who thinks this is a story, and they think I’m unfair and biased by pursuing it. My side of the story is I never knew where this story was going when I talked to those whistleblowers back in January and February, and I didn’t care where it went. I’m just sort of digging away and going where it leads, but I’m sure they take it very personally because they have very important implications.”
Those implications are becoming more dire by the moment. Newly obtained Justice Department memos show that U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. was told about the controversial Fast and Furious weapons investigation as early as July, 2010, which is ten months earlier than what Holder admitted to a House Committee in May.
According to The Washington Times, the July memo to Mr. Holder from Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), specifically identifies the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-led Fast and Furious operation, says when it began, names the federal law enforcement agencies involved, and identifies the major investigative targets.
“The memo, sent to Mr. Holder through the office of the acting deputy attorney general, also notes that the operation involved a Phoenix-based firearms-trafficking ring and says ‘straw purchasers’ were responsible for buying 1,500 firearms ‘that were then supplied to Mexican drug-trafficking cartels,’” the Times reports.
In response to the deepening scandal, the White House is claiming that Holder misunderstood the question posed by Rep. Darrell E. Issa during the hearings.
At the May, 2011 hearing, Issa asked Holder: “When did you first know about the program, officially, I believe, called Fast and Furious? To the best of your knowledge, what date?”
Holder responded: “I’m not sure of the exact date, but I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks.”
Not surprisingly, lawmakers on the Hill are now calling for a special counsel to determine whether Holder misled Congress during the hearings.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) sent a letter to the president asking him to authorize the appointment, saying that the recently provided documents “raise significant questions about the truthfulness of the attorney general’s testimony.”
“The department’s consistent response to Congress has been that Operation Fast and Furious was a discrete law enforcement effort largely isolated to the ATF office in Phoenix,” he said in the letter. “These documents appear to undermine this claim and bring into question statements made by Attorney General Holder to this committee.
“Allegations that senior Justice Department officials may have intentionally misled members of Congress are extremely troubling and must be addressed by an independent and objective special counsel,” he said.
The White House has not yet responded to the letter.
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