Ex-Az U.S. Atty Drops Family of Slain Border Agent, Citing Govt. Attempts to Link Him to Gun Walking Cases

Paul K. Charlton/law firm photo
By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com

The overspill from ATF’s Operation Fast and Furious is touching plenty folks.

The lastest: Former U.S. Attorney Paul Charlton, who has been representing the family of Brian Terry, the border patrol agent in Arizona who was killed by gunfire last December. The family has been considering legal action against the government ever since it was learned that two guns from Fast and Furious were recovered at the murder scene.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that Charlton, who served as Arizona U.S. Attorney from 2001 to 2007,  has decided to stop representing the parents “because of what he called an effort by the Justice Department to link him to disgraced gun-running investigations.”

Under Fast and Furious, ATF encouraged gun dealers in Arizona to sell to “straw purchasers” or middlemen, all with the hopes of tracing the guns to Mexico. ATF lost track of many of the weapons, some which surfaced at crime scenes.

“But in early October, allegations of allowing this so-called ‘gun walking’ crept closer to Charlton himself,” the Arizona Daily Star reported. “The Associated Press reported the existence of a previous ATF investigation in Arizona that had also allowed guns into Mexico. This Tucson-based investigation, Operation Wide Receiver, had begun in early 2006 while Charlton was U.S. attorney.”

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