Fast and Furious Update: Did FBI Give Guns to Convicted Felons?

One of the arguments from Eric Holder about why his Justice Department wasn't complying with Congressional subpoenas over Fast and Furious was that DOJ was conducting investigations relative to the arrests of straw purchasers. Now it's been learned that of the 20 straw purchasers under indictment, two of them were convicted felons and the FBI appears to have knowingly allowed those to men to purchase hundreds of guns. The stakes in the Fast and Furious scandal just got a whole lot higher on the eve of the next round of hearings, which will take place tomorrow. If the FBI is implicated in this scandal as having coordinated these purchases with the ATF, it would seem that even further suggests DOJ leadership involvement.

Via Fox News:

In the latest chapter of the gunrunning scandal known as Operation Fast and Furious, federal officials won't say how two suspects obtained more than 360 weapons despite criminal records that should have prevented them from buying even one gun.

Under current federal law, people with felony convictions are not permitted to buy weapons, and those with felony arrests are typically flagged while the FBI conducts a thorough background check.

However, according to court records reviewed by Fox News, two of the 20 defendants indicted in the Fast and Furious investigation have felony convictions and criminal backgrounds that experts say, at the very least, should have delayed them buying a single firearm. Instead, the duo bought dozens of guns on multiple occasions while federal officials watched on closed-circuit cameras.

Congressional and law-enforcement sources say the situation suggests the FBI, which operates the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, knowingly allowed the purchases to go forward after consulting with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which initiated Operation Fast and Furious.

Here is video of the report: