Attorney General to appear before House Oversight Committee next month to answer questions on gunwalking operation

Springfield, PA – U.S. Rep. Patrick Meehan (PA-07) today issued the following statement regarding the announcement from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder will appear before the Committee on February 2 to answer questions related to the gunwalking operation known as Fast and Furious.

“Attorney General Holder is doing the right thing in appearing before the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. There are serious, unanswered questions about how this gunwalking operation was condoned in the first place. And I am deeply troubled by allegations that officials acted improperly in response to congressional investigations. The American people trust the Justice Department to uphold the law, not cover-up lawbreaking. As many as 1,400 guns are still unaccounted for, more and more illegal guns are discovered at violent crime scenes in Mexico, and an American Border Patrol Agent is dead. I expect Attorney General Holder to provide critical answers into how illegal guns were allowed to walk and explain the Justice Department’s response since this ill-fated operation was exposed.”

Rep. Meehan, a former U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, sent a letter to Attorney General Holder in October calling on him to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Since that time, the Justice Department has had to take the unusual step of withdrawing a February 4, 2011 letter to Congress due to inaccuracies, including the false assertion that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had not “sanctioned or otherwise knowingly allowed the sale of assault weapons” to straw-purchasers.

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