By EVAN PEREZ
WASHINGTON—Four senior managers who oversaw the ill-fated federal gun-trafficking probe called "Fast and Furious" will be fired if recommendations from a disciplinary panel are accepted.
People familiar with the matter said the Professional Review Board of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives sent notices of its decision in recent days to bureau managers. In addition, two lower-level employees face disciplinary actions, short of firings. The move from the ATF's review board is the first step in what could be a monthslong process, including appeals.
The panel's recommendations go to high-level ATF managers who will decide whether to accept them. That decision can be appealed to an outside board that oversees civil-service workers.
Republican lawmakers in recent months have pressed the ATF to hold employees accountable for what the Justice Department's internal watchdog called a "pattern of serious failures" in an operation that lost track of thousands of guns sold to suspected smugglers.
The managers recommended for termination, according to people familiar with the matter, are Mark Chait, former assistant director for field operations; William McMahon, who oversaw field operations in the Western U.S.; William Newell, former chief of the ATF's Phoenix office; and George Gillett, the No. 2 official in the ATF's Phoenix office.
In addition to dismissal, the officials' security clearances would be revoked if the recommendations are accepted, according to the people familiar with the matter, a move that could hurt their future job prospects.
David Laufman, attorney for Mr. Chait, said "any adverse finding or recommendation by the PRB would be utterly without merit."
Mr. Newell's attorney, Paul Pelletier, declined to comment. Peter Noone, Mr. Gillett's attorney, also declined to comment, saying he hadn't received official notification.
Mr. McMahon has been the subject of criticism from lawmakers because he took a leave from his ATF post to take a global security management job for a bank, pending his planned retirement later this month. ATF officials took the additional step of dismissing Mr. McMahon last week, according to officials familiar with the matter, though that move is subject to appeal.
"Mr. McMahon was unfortunately the victim of a politically charged football match over an operation that was officially sanctioned," said Mr. McMahon's lawyer, Mark S. Zaid. "As a result, he was terminated less than a month shy of achieving his 25-year pension. He'll absolutely be appealing that decision."
The two other ATF employees subject to disciplinary proceedings are David Voth, an ATF Phoenix supervisor who rejected complaints from agents about the operation, and Hope McAllister, a lead agent in the operation. Mr. Voth would be demoted to a street agent and Ms. McAllister would be subject to a reprimand and a disciplinary transfer to another ATF post.
Mr. Voth's attorney declined to comment. Ms. McAllister didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. An ATF spokesman declined to comment.
"Fast and Furious" was a gun probe run by ATF agents in Phoenix in 2009 and 2010. Agents allowed sales of about 2,000 guns, costing about $1.5 million, to suspected smugglers. The aim was to track the weapons and prosecute top traffickers, but agents seized only about 100 of the firearms. Many have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico and the U.S., including two at the scene of a 2010 Arizona shootout where a U.S. border agent, Brian Terry, was killed.
The disciplinary proceedings are part of an overhaul that has been going on for more than a year at ATF and the Justice Department. Last year, the attorney general ousted Kenneth Melson as acting director at ATF, and Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney for Arizona who helped oversee the operation, resigned under pressure, according to people familiar with the matter.
Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones, the ATF's fifth acting director in six years, has spent the past year putting in place new training and procedures to oversee operations in an attempt to prevent a repeat of "Fast and Furious."
Write to Evan Perez at evan.perez@wsj.com
A version of this article appeared December 4, 2012, on page A4 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Firings Set Over 'Fast and Furious'.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323717004578159732025255610.html
That leaves the question over who will be fired at DOJ. If the firings stop with these ATF personnel, then an injustice will be done. What about Lanny Breuer at DOJ?
What about Attorney General Eric Holder himslef.
What about Janet Napolitano, who has maintained her silence even though one-possibly two of her agents were killed by Fast and Furious-linked weapons?
I predict they will all skate.
That leaves the question over who will be fired at DOJ. If the firings stop with these ATF personnel, then an injustice will be done. What about Lanny Breuer at DOJ?
What about Attorney General Eric Holder himslef.
What about Janet Napolitano, who has maintained her silence even though one-possibly two of her agents were killed by Fast and Furious-linked weapons?
I predict they will all skate.
4 comments:
Currently, and probably permanently, nothing but a WHITEWASH!!!!!
And what duly constituted panel has carefully considered all the evidence, duly recommending that any of those Gary has named be fired?
Fousesquawk sets itself up as judge, jury, and executioner, recognizing hearsay and wishful thinking as evidence. Fortunately, this has no legal force, or Gary would be a kind of tinpot Morsi. Gary has it in him to be better than that.
No, Gary is not judge jury and executioner, just exercising his free speech rights. As to the evidence, you have not been reading my posts over the past year-just dismissing them.
Looks like the involvement of four of these ATF dudes in F&F constitutes firing offens(es) in the eyes of the ATF Professional Review Board. I noted that they come from both supervisory/upper managerial field and Headquarters elements, while the apparent “working stiffs“ or first line supervisors or whatever are facing discipline short of firing. Here is why I characterized it as a whitewash, at least so far (obvious scapegoating going on here, also).
ATF is, of course, subordinate to DOJ, which of course has own Professional Review Board or counterpart, whatever its name. DOJ also has an Inspector General. We know by now that DOJ Headquarters knowledge/approval of F&F extended , at the very least, to the first or second tier of managers under Holder. Again, the absence, at least to date, of evidence that Holder knew of/was involved in approval of this debacle is not the same as, and does not constitute, evidence of his absence in doing so.
And unless absolutely nobody at DOJ was aware of/involved in this caper, which is obviously not the case, if firing is appropriate for ATF officials, it is certainly even more so for certain DOJ approvers/coordinators who were, if anything, even far more remiss, given the oversight/supervisory function of DOJ over ATF. Who all those individuals are remains to be seen.
Nothing happening there yet, and I do not expect anyone else in DOJ to be fired, and certainly not be prosecuted, unless the cheese gets a lot more binding, which by now is, in my view, fairly unlikely.
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