No surprise here.
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif), head of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, isn’t sad to see the resignation of Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division.
“Lanny Breuer’s resignation is long overdue,” Issa said in a press release issued late last week. “Breuer was at the heart of several critical failures in Operation Fast and Furious: he knew about reckless tactics, failed to take seriously allegations that they were continuing, and only owned up to his failures once they were publicly exposed.
“The Inspector General’s report admonished Breuer for failing to inform the Deputy Attorney General or the Attorney General when he learned, in April 2010, that the reckless tactic of gunwalking was used in a prior operation,” Issa said. Furthermore, several of Breuer’s top deputies authorized sensitive wiretap applications under Breuer’s authority that, according to the OIG report, contained stark, incontrovertible evidence of the exact same gunwalking tactic. Had Breuer taken any action whatsoever, Fast and Furious would have ended eight months sooner than it did. This resignation paves the way for needed new leadership in the Criminal Division.”
