WASHINGTON – Senator Chuck Grassley and Congressman Darrell Issa are again pushing the U.S. Department of Justice to be forthcoming about yet another gun found at the scene of a shooting in Arizona and connected to the ill-advised gunwalking strategy known as Operation Fast and Furious.
The shooting occurred at a Phoenix apartment complex and left two individuals wounded. Grassley and Issa learned of the gun from documents obtained through a request under Arizona’s open records law by Judicial Watch. According to the non-profit’s website, the organization “promotes transparency, accountability and integrity in government.” Grassley and Issa were able to confirm through documents obtained during their investigation that the weapon found at the scene was purchased by Sean Christopher Steward, who has since been convicted for his role in Operation Fast and Furious and is serving 9 years in prison.
Steward purchased the firearm while under surveillance by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The ATF agents watched Steward purchase the firearms, place them in another person’s vehicle, and transfer them to a suspected stash house. Despite the continued surveillance, the ATF did nothing to stop the guns from being moved. The gun was one of approximately 200 firearms that Steward purchased in December 2009 with full knowledge of the ATF.
In a letter to Deputy Attorney General James Cole, Grassley and Issa ask for additional information about this particular gun and other firearms associated with crimes that were allowed to be trafficked by the ATF during Operation Fast and Furious. Grassley and Issa have previously asked for similar information, and make clear that the continued lack of transparency by the Obama administration regarding Operation Fast and Furious creates mistrust from Congress and the American people.
“The refusal to respond to our standing requests for this information effectively hides the connection between crimes like this and Operation Fast and Furious. Unless the information becomes available some other way, the public would never know. This lack of transparency about the consequences of Fast and Furious undermines public confidence in law enforcement and gives the impression that the Department is still seeking to suppress information and limit its exposure to public scrutiny,” Grassley and Issa wrote.
Grassley and Issa led a congressional investigation into the actions of the Justice Department and the ATF that allowed gunwalking, guns purchased by known straw buyers who then often transferred the firearms to Mexican drug cartels. Operation Fast and Furious contributed to the death of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who died in December 2010 when a firearm from the operation was found at the murder scene. The House of Representatives has subpoenaed documents withheld by the Justice Department which were subsequently claimed by the White House to be under executive privilege. Most recently, a federal judge has ordered the Obama administration to produce a privilege log to explain why the documents are being withheld from Congress.
A copy of the text of the letter is below. A copy of the signed letter is here.
October 16, 2014
VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable James M. Cole
Deputy Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530
Dear Deputy Attorney General Cole:
On more than one occasion, we have written the Department to ask for information about firearms that have been recovered in connection with violent crimes and are associated with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF’s) Operation Fast and Furious. The Department has failed to respond to our last three letters on this topic, sent on October 2, 2012, December 17, 2012, and July 12, 2013.
Once again, we have learned of another crime gun connected to Fast and Furious. The Department did not provide any notice to the Congress or the public about this gun.
Documents obtained by Judicial Watch under Arizona’s public records law show that law enforcement officials recovered a Fast and Furious gun last summer in connection with a shooting that left two individuals wounded.[1] At 12:30 a.m. on Tuesday, July 30, 2013, the Phoenix Police Department received reports of shots fired at an apartment complex. Responding officers arrived to find two wounded men, one inside an apartment and one outside.[2] The men had suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and the front windows and door of the apartment had several bullet holes.[3] Witnesses of the shooting reported that just after the shots were fired, a vehicle sped in reverse through a nearby parking lot and crashed backward into a fence at the apartment complex. Several individuals were then seen running in various directions from the complex.[4] Police discovered an assault rifle in the front passenger area of the vehicle.[5]
Approximately three weeks later, Phoenix Police Department detectives and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations agents arrested four individuals on counts of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, shooting into an occupied structure, and burglary. The arrests were reportedly connected with a large-scale drug trafficking investigation.[6]
Based on the serial number from the police report obtained by Judicial Watch[7] and documents obtained during our Fast and Furious investigation, we can confirm that the assault rifle recovered in the vehicle on July 30, 2013 was purchased by Sean Christopher Steward.[8] Steward pled guilty to firearms trafficking charges resulting from his involvement with Operation Fast and Furious.[9] A Department press release summarizes Steward’s activity:
During a six-month period from December 2009 through June 2010, Steward, using funds provided by the leader of the firearms trafficking organization, paid over $176,000 in cash to purchase approximately 289 firearms, including 260 AK-47 style firearms, 20 nine millimeter pistols, a .50 caliber rifle and other “weapons of choice” of the Mexican drug cartels.[10]
Steward purchased this particular firearm on December 8, 2009, one of 40 that he purchased that day while under ATF surveillance.[11] According to the Office of Inspector General (OIG) report of Operation Fast and Furious:
On the morning of December 8, MacAllister went to FFL1 and was informed that a caller inquired about the store’s inventory of AK-47 style rifles. The incoming telephone number was from Celis-Acosta’s residence, which had already been identified by agents as a possible stash house. Shortly thereafter, Steward arrived to purchase the 20 AK-47 style rifles. A United Parcel Services truck delivered an additional 20 AK-47 style rifles while Steward was at the store and, according to the ATF report of this incident, Steward told FFL1 that he would return later in the day and purchase those firearms as well.
Agents maintained surveillance of Steward after he left FFL1 and eventually observed him transfer boxes containing the firearms from his vehicle to another. Agents also conducted surveillance of Steward when he returned to FFL1 accompanied by two other individuals to purchase the additional 20 AK-47 style rifles. The firearms were placed in the bed of a truck – not Steward’s vehicle – and the three individuals left FFL1. At ATF’s request, Phoenix police officers conducted a traffic stop of the vehicle in order to identify its occupants, one of whom was Celis-Acosta. The officers asked the occupants about the firearms that were visible in the back of the vehicle. Steward told the officers that he purchased the firearms and that they belonged to him. The officers did not seize the firearms or issue a traffic citation. Surveillance was continued after this stop, and agents eventually observed the firearms being transferred into Celis-Acosta’s residence.
Under circumstances that we describe later, 8 of the 40 firearms purchased by Steward on December 8 were seized by police officers in Douglas, Arizona (adjacent to the Mexican border) later that same day. ATF reviewed records on December 9 from the Arizona Department of Economic security that showed Steward had a reported income totaling $4479 for the first quarter of 2009.[12]
ATF officials entered the 40 firearms Steward purchased on December 8, 2009 into ATF’s Suspect Gun Database on December 9, 2009.[13] As our July 31, 2012 joint staff report recounted, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) wiretap in early December 2009 also intercepted telephone communications in which Steward made arrangements to obtain firearms for DEA’s target.[14] DEA passed this information off to ATF, but ATF utterly failed to act on it.[15] The OIG report concludes of Steward in this time period:
Steward went on to purchase approximately 200 firearms in December, all but one from FFL1, for over $110,000. This total included 43 firearms purchased on a single day, December 14 (four of these firearms were recovered in Mexico just four days later). Steward purchased another 42 firearms in January 2010 for over $25,000. ATF did not take any measures to disrupt Steward’s purchasing activity following the events on December 8 or at any other time until agents interviewed him at his residence in November 2010. Steward was not arrested until the Fast and Furious case was indicted on January 19, 2011.[16]
Patrick Cunningham, then Chief of the Criminal Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona,[17] apparently prepared talking points for then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke’s[18] indictment press conference. These talking points highlighted Steward’s December 8, 2009 purchase as typical of the firearms trafficking ring whose takedown ATF and the U.S. Attorney’s office touted that day.[19]
On July 18, 2012 Steward pled guilty for his role in Operation Fast and Furious, and was sentenced on November 26, 2012 to serve nine years in prison.[20] Steward’s attorney at the time said he planned to appeal his client’s sentence.[21]
According to the Phoenix Police Department report, ATF traced the firearm on July 31, 2013, the day Phoenix police officers recovered it. Yet, over a full year has passed, and the Department has failed to notify the Committees. The refusal to respond to our standing requests for this information effectively hides the connection between crimes like this and Operation Fast and Furious. Unless the information becomes available some other way, the public would never know. This lack of transparency about the consequences of Fast and Furious undermines public confidence in law enforcement and gives the impression that the Department is still seeking to suppress information and limit its exposure to public scrutiny.
Therefore, please respond to the following questions as soon as possible, but not later than October 30, 2014:
1) Was the firearm recovered on July 30, 2013 connected with any other crimes in Mexico or the U.S.?
2) As of the date of this letter, what is the total number of weapons associated with Fast and Furious that have been recovered in the U.S. and successfully traced?
3) As of the date of this letter, what is the total number of weapons associated with Fast and Furious that have been recovered in Mexico and successfully traced?
4) Of the U.S recoveries, how many were recovered in relation to an incident of a violent nature? Please describe in detail the date and circumstances of each recovery that has not previously been described in the Department’s responses to our letters.
5) Of the Mexican recoveries, how many were recovered in relation to an incident of a violent nature? Please describe in detail the date and circumstances of each recovery that has not previously been described in the Department’s responses to our letters.
Should you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Tristan Leavitt of the Senate Judiciary Committee staff at (202) 224-5225 or Ashok Pinto of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform staff at (202) 225-5074. Thank you for your prompt attention to this important matter.
Sincerely,
___________________________ ___________________________
Charles E. Grassley, Ranking Member Darrell Issa, Chairman
Committee on the Judiciary Committee on Oversight and
U.S. Senate Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
Attachments
cc:
The Honorable B. Todd Jones, Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings, Ranking Member
U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
The Honorable Patrick Leahy, Chairman
U.S. Senate, Committee on the Judiciary
The Honorable Michael E. Horowitz, Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
1. See “Fast and Furious Update: Judicial Watch Sues City of Phoenix for Police Department’s ATF, DHS, DEA and FBI Records about 2013 Gang-Style Assault,” JudicialWatch.org (Oct. 9, 2014), http://www.judicialwatch.org/press-room/press-releases/fast-furious-upda....
2. Breann Bierman, PD: 2 shot at east Phoenix apartment complex, KPHO.com (Jul. 30, 2013), available at http://www.kpho.com/story/22964928/2-shot-at-east-phoenix-apartment-complex.
3. Phil Benson, Suspects in AZ narcotics probe tied to multiple shooting, KPHO.com (Aug. 22, 2013), available at http://www.kpho.com/story/23232855/suspects-in-az-narcotics-probe-tied-t....
4. Id.
5. Jennifer Thomas, 4 detained in Phoenix drug operation implicated in double shooting, AZfamily.com (Aug. 22, 2013), available at http://www.azfamily.com/news/4-detained-in-Phoenix-narcotics-operation-i....
6. Id.
7. Phoenix Police Department Report #2013-01344558 7 (Aug. 3, 2013), at 1 [Attachment 1].
8. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Suspect Gun Summary (Dec. 9, 2009) [Attachment 2].
9. Press release, “Summary of Major U.S. Export Enforcement, Economic Espionage, Trade Secret and Embargo-Related Criminal Cases,” Department of Justice (Feb. 2013), available at http://test.pmddtc.state.gov/compliance/documents/OngoingExportCaseFactS....
10. Id. (emphasis added).
11. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Suspect Gun Summary (Dec. 9, 2009) [Attachment 2].
12. A Review of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the Inspector Gen., Sept. 2012, at 116-117.
13. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Suspect Gun Summary (Dec. 9, 2009) [Attachment 2].
14. H. Comm. on Oversight & Gov't Reform and S. Comm. on the Judiciary Joint Staff Report, Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation (Part I of III), 112th Congress (July 31, 2012), Appendix I, at 113.
15. For a recounting of this, see also H. Comm. on Oversight & Gov't Reform and S. Comm. on the Judiciary Joint Staff Report, Fast and Furious: The Anatomy of a Failed Operation (Part I of III), 112th Congress (July 31, 2012), at 34-36.
16. A Review of ATF's Operation Fast and Furious and Related Matters, U.S. Dept. of Justice, Office of the Inspector Gen., Sept. 2012, at 117-118.
17. Cunningham resigned on January 30, 2012. He asserted his Fifth Amendment privilege before the House Oversight Committee on January 19, 2012.
18. Burke resigned on August 31, 2011.
19. E-mail from Patrick Cunningham to Dennis Burke, Jan. 24, 2011 [HOGR USAO 003098].
20. Id.
21. Brian Skoloff, 2 men sentenced in Fast and Furious gun case, Associated Press (Nov. 26, 2012), available at http://www.azfamily.com/news/2-men-sentenced-in-Fast-and-Furious-gun-cas....
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