Fast and Furious, the first Fall Guy..

[philw]

so   1 down,   

I sort of hope that this still keeps popping up to be an election issue that that the republicans really push the issue home..

U.S. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich plans to resign his position soon, as two different scandals rage on in which he has provided allegedly misleading information to Congress.

Weich, who has served as Attorney General Eric Holder’s emissary in congressional communications, will become the next dean of the University of Baltimore School of Law in July, according to the National Law Journal.

The DOJ official is the same Holder deputy who falsely told Congress that neither the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives nor any part of the Department of Justice ever allowed illicit firearms to “walk” across the U.S.-Mexico border — even as contrary facts emerged from the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious.

On Feb. 4, 2011, Weich wrote to Congress that the idea that “ATF ‘sanctioned’ or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico … is false.”

“ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico,” Weich added in that letter.

The DOJ has since retracted Weich’s letter but has not held anyone accountable for providing that misinformation to Congress, or for Operation Fast and Furious itself.

Scores of lawmakers — 125 House members, three U.S. Senators, two governors — and many major political figures including likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney have demanded Holder’s resignation or firing over Fast and Furious.

In February, Weich denied the Justice Department’s involvement in another scandal. The Daily Caller learned that the DOJ had failed to arrest and prosecute several indicted financial criminals because of an alleged bribery scheme. Weich said the DOJ had no knowledge of any bribery.

But TheDC’s investigation unearthed allegations that two DOJ prosecutors on a team of more than 25 accepted cash bribes from indicted finance executives in the U.S. Virgin Islands. And USVI Gov. John de Jongh allegedly accepted part of at least $20 million in cash bribes in exchange for favors from his administration. At least five other prosecutors, according to TheDC’s well-placed source in the DOJ, were compromised.

Weich’s letter denying the allegations was carefully worded. He addressed few specifics in TheDC’s reporting or in the letter Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley sent him requesting additional information. His response made no mention of sealed indictments, or of the lengthy investigation the DOJ conducted into the financial irregularities at the center of the Virgin Islands case.

Instead, Weich challenged only The Daily Caller’s decision to give its source protection through anonymity, claiming the DOJ has no knowledge of the alleged bribes explored in the story.

“The Department is not aware of facts supporting any allegations of bribery, as purported by the article,” Weich wrote.

DOJ spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler has not responded to months of questions from TheDC about the specifics of this story. Schmaler also didn’t respond on Wednesday when asked what connection, if any, Weich’s resignation has to Operation Fast and Furious, or to the Virgin Islands case.
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/25/high-ranking-doj-official-to-resign-amid-fast-and-furious-virgin-islands-bribery-scandals/#ixzz1t9El99id

The top Justice Department official who signed a letter erroneously telling lawmakers investigating "Operation Fast and Furious" that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives never allowed guns to be sold to cartel members will be leaving the department to head up a law school.
Ronald Weich, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, will become the new dean of the University of Baltimore's school of law in July.
"During this time of considerable transition in legal education and the legal profession, it is important to have leadership with integrity and vision," University of Baltimore President Robert Bogomolny  said in a statement issued Wednesday. "Ron Weich embodies those qualities. I look forward to working with him, and I know our students, faculty, staff and alumni will be energized by his arrival."
News of Weich's pending departure comes nearly a month after he suggested Republicans on Capitol Hill were leaking sensitive information and five months after the Justice Department formally withdrew a Feb. 4, 2011, letter sent to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who was demanding answers from the ATF and Attorney General Eric Holder over allegations the agency had let suspected drug-smugglers buy hundreds of assault weapons.
"At the outset, the allegation ... that ATF 'sanctioned' or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons to a straw purchaser who then transported them into Mexico -- is false," Weich wrote Grassley at the time. "ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons that have been purchased illegally and prevent their transportation to Mexico."
Since then, a congressional investigation into "Fast and Furious" led by Grassley and House Oversight and Government Report Committee Chairman Darrel Issa, R-Calif., has helped reveal those claims as false.
In March, Weich sent a letter to Grassley and Issa noting that reporters were calling the Justice Department to ask about private documents relating to “an active criminal investigation,” including the case against one of the main targets of “Fast and Furious.”
“While we do not know who provided these letters to reporters, we are deeply disturbed that sensitive law enforcement information contained in them has now entered the public domain,” Weich wrote. “Since we know that you share our desire to bring dangerous arms traffickers to justice, we ask that you preserve the confidentiality of sensitive law enforcement information that may come into your possession.”
Launched in Arizona in late 2009, "Fast and Furious" planned to follow gun purchasers in hopes that suspects would lead them to the heads of Mexican cartels. But high-powered weapons tied to the investigation, whose targets purchased nearly 2,000 weapons over several months, ended up at crime scenes in Mexico and the United States, including the December 2010 murder of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry
In recent months, the Justice Department disclosed several ATF operations similar to "Fast and Furious" conducted under the previous administration. And the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, Lanny Breuer, has acknowledged he learned of one of those "gunwalking" investigations, "Operation Wide Receiver," in April 2010 but never said anything to Holder.
The Feb. 4, 2011, letter signed by Weich -- and drafted in coordination with others in the department -- was formally withdrawn in December 2011.
Testifying before a House panel earlier this year, Holder said he did not believe the Justice Department intended to mislead Congress, noting his department has taken a "rare" move and made "wholesale deliberative material available" to lawmakers to help explain the genesis of "the inaccuracies that were contained in that letter."
"These documents show that department officials relied on information provided by supervisors from the relevant components in the best position to know the facts," Holder told lawmakers. "In subsequent interviews with congressional investigators, these supervisors stated that they did not know at the time that the information that they provided was inaccurate."
Weich himself testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform committee in June 2011. He mostly testified about the Justice Department's efforts to comply with congressional subpoenas, but he was also asked about the Feb. 4, 2011, letter.
"Every time the Justice Department sends a letter to Congress, it is true to the best of our knowledge at the time that we send it," he said. Still, he insisted again that ATF "doesn't sanction or approve of the transfer of weapons to Mexico."
It's unclear exactly when Weich would step down from the Justice Department. An email seeking comment from a Justice Department spokeswoman was not immediately returned.
Weich was confirmed by the Senate as assistant attorney general for legislative affairs in April 2009. He "heads the Office that represents the Department of Justice on all legislative and oversight matters before Congress," according to the Justice Department's website.
He previously served as Chief Counsel to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and as counsel to former Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Arlen Specter, R-Penn., according to the Justice Department. Prior to that, he worked in private practice.
He is a native New Yorker, and a graduate of Columbia University and the Yale Law School.
The University of Baltimore School of Law is the sixth largest public law school in the country, with more than 1,100 students at its midtown campus, according to a press release from the school.
It was recently ranked among the top "Best Value" law schools by PreLaw magazine, the school said.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/04/25/top-justice-figure-in-fast-and-furious-leaving-department-to-head-up-law-school/#ixzz1t9EzHolx

[twyacht]

Commit Perjury, Become a Dean at a prominent law school....Nice Benefits, good salary,....cushy job.....

Seems fitting for this admin.

Issa and Grassley need to grow bigger cojones,....stop playing games,......I WANT PERJURY, CONSPIRACY, and WHATEVER ELSE THEY CAN BE CHARGED WITH....UP TO AND INCLUDING HOLDER!!!!

[McGyver]

Commit Perjury, Become a Dean at a prominent law school....Nice Benefits, good salary,....cushy job.....

Seems fitting for this admin.

Issa and Grassley need to grow bigger cojones,....stop playing games,......I WANT PERJURY, CONSPIRACY, and WHATEVER ELSE THEY CAN BE CHARGED WITH....UP TO AND INCLUDING ..........OWEBAMA !!!!


Fixed it for ya! LMAO!