Fast and Furious scandal: Eric Holder admits to errors in ATF report

On Tuesday, the Senate grilled Attorney General Eric Holder on his knowledge of the ATF’s botched gun trafficking sting that resulted in upwards of 1,800 weapons making their way across the border to Mexico.

Earlier this year, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich sent a letter to Senator Charles Grassley and his staff that stated the ATF had not willingly allowed guns to be trafficked into Mexico, which turned out to be wrong.

Holder said in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as reported by ABC News:

“There was information in that letter that was inaccurate. The letter could have been better crafted, we were relying on … information provided to them by people who were, we thought, in the best position to know what was accurate,”

Holder continued, saying:

“People in the U.S. Attorneys’ Office, people at ATF, people who themselves have now indicated in their Congressional testimony before the House that they were not aware of the tactics that were employed. As a result of that, the information that is contained in the February 4th letter to you was not in fact accurate…. I regret that,”

The operation, internally dubbed Operation Fast and Furious, began in 2009. It was originally the ATF’s intent to keep distribute and keep track of guns across the border in Mexico, but ATF agents were unable to keep track of many of the weapons. Afterwards, roughly 200 of the weapons were later spotted at crime scenes throughout Mexico, and two were spotted near the body of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed in December of 2010.

Source: ABC News

[Image credit: Associated Press]