EXPLOSIVE: Grassley has Damning Emails on ATF Scandal

The other shoe may be dropping in the Project Gunrunner scandal. CBS's Sharyl Attkisson is reporting that they involve 'damning' emails. They involve correspondence between a gun shop owner and the ATF in which the owner expressed great concern about selling weapons to straw purchasers. Not only that, but the same gun shop owner actually expressed concern later because he said he had a friend who was a Border Patrol agent. The tragic irony is that the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry appears to be the catalyst for this whole program being exposed.

Via CBS:

Damning, newly-obtained emails show that a key gun shop owner made explicit concerns in writing last year in the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms' "gunwalking" scandal.

Starting in late 2009, ATF allegedly directed an undetermined number of Phoenix-area gun shop owners to go ahead with sales of thousands of assault rifles and other weapons to suspicious buyers. Insiders claim ATF knew the buyers were connected to Mexico's drug cartels, but let the guns "walk" onto the street anyway in a misguided attempt to obtain intelligence. ATF and the Justice Department have denied that.

Investigators from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) obtained the emails this week.

In an April 13, 2010 email, the unnamed gun shop owner told ATF he was worried how he'd be viewed if the guns he sold ended up in the wrong hands.

"We just want to make sure we are cooperating with ATF and that we are not viewed as selling to bad guys," the gun shop owner wrote to ATF Phoenix Supervisor David Voth. The gun shop owner asked for a letter of understanding to "alleviate concerns of some type of recourse against us down the road for selling these items."

ATF Supervisor Voth tried to reassure the cooperating gun shop owner. "I understand that the frequency with which some individuals under investigation by our office have been purchasing firearms from your business has caused concerns for you... However, if helps put you at east we (ATF) are continually monitoring these suspects using a variety of investigative techniques which I cannot go into [in] detail."

Be sure to read Grassley's letter to Eric Holder HERE. The email attachments that blow holes through the credibility of the ATF and DOJ are likely in Grassley's possession thanks to Asst special agent in charge, George Gillett, who has come forward to talk with Grassley. More on Gillett HERE.



Read it all.