By Sari Horwitz and Peter Finn Washington Post WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s plans to energize the embattled agency that regulates the firearms industry and investigates gun violence are already running into trouble on Capitol Hill, foreshadowing the difficulties facing the president as he moves to advance his gun-control agenda. President Obama announced his…
DAN BROWNING and PAUL MCENROE Minneapolis Star Tribune staff writers A former director of the Minneapolis FBI office sent a letter this week to members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee denouncing B. Todd Jones’ performance as U.S. attorney in Minnesota as they prepare to consider his nomination to director of the U.S. Bureau…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif) said Friday that President Barack Obama’s nomination of B. Todd Jones to permanent director of ATF is a slap in the face. “Acting Director Jones was at the helm of ATF as many troubling problems from the fallout of Operation Fast and Furious festered,” Issa, chairman…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com President Barack Obama said Wednesday that he plans to nominate B. Todd Jones as the permanent director of ATF, the National Journal reported. Jones was installed as the acting director in Sept. 11, 2011 as part of a house-cleaning effort after Operation Fast and Furious became a major controversy and liability…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com ATF whistleblower Peter Forcelli told ticklethewire.com on Thursday that the current leadership at ATF is being unfairly attacked and wrongly accused of trying to silence whistleblowers like himself. “It’s not fair, these guys are trying to do the right thing,” he says about the new leadership at ATF. The comments by…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Sen. Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa, two of Capitol Hill’s chief critics of ATF, expressed concern about comments the agency’s acting Director B. Todd Jones made to employees earlier this month. Specifically, the two were concerned about a comment that could put a chill on whistleblowers. Todd said: “… if…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The then-acting head of ATF, Ken Melson, told Congressional investigators back in July that he was irate that his underlings didn’t tell him about the controversial agency program Fast and Furious, an operation that encouraged gun dealers in Arizona to sell to “straw purchasers” with the hopes of tracing the weapons…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com A big shakeup has begun at ATF. Thomas Brandon, who had recently been sent from Detroit to head up the Phoenix Division and clean up the fall out from Operation Fast and Furious, will become the agency’s deputy director — the number two person. The acting number two person, William J….
