Holder tells Cornyn in faceoff on gunrunning he won’t quit

He said the department has released just 7,000 pages of Fast and Furious documents to congressional investigators, which he described as “just a spit in the ocean.”

Mr. Grassley also noted that Terry died in a shootout with Mexican bandits armed with two AK-47s purchased by straw buyers in Arizona, adding that three ATF whistleblowers challenged the practice of letting guns “walk” into Mexico in testimony a year ago before a House committee. He said Terry’s mother and sister testified that same day.

“Here we are - one year later - and the Terry family is still waiting for answers. They are still waiting for justice. The FBI doesn’t have the shooter in custody. And the Justice Department is still defying a congressional subpoena for information about how all this happened,” he said.

He also noted that Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer, who heads the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, admitted that he knew about a gun-walking operation during the George W. Bush administration called Wide Receiver but failed to speak up about it when he was sent copies of a letter he had written to Mr. Grassley denying that ATF ever let guns walk.

Mr. Grassley said Mr. Breuer stayed silent for eight months while the public controversy over gunwalking grew, adding that information has since surfaced showing that Mr. Breuer’s deputy discussed gunwalking in the context of both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious.

“So senior people at Justice had to have known the details of what was going on,” he said.

© Copyright 2013 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.