Open Letter: Attorney asks Arizona Attorney General to Prosecute ATF Officials

During the July 26th Oversight and Government Reform hearing into who knew what, when about ATF's Operation Fast and Furious, former Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Phoenix division, William Newell was grilled multiple times. One exchange in particular between he and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) took an interesting turn when Gowdy asked Newell to respond to a hypothetical in which Mexican authorities demanded the extradition of any ATF official responsible for implementing the operation. Newell appears to have been quite instrumental in that implementation.

An attorney in Arizona has now sent an open letter to his state's Attorney General requesting prosecution of any and all ATF officials - this would no doubt include Newell - responsible for the conception or implementation of Fast and Furious.

Via Tucson Citizen:

Tom Horne
Arizona Attorney General

Re: ATF Fast and Furious

Dear Mr. Horne

As you are aware, ATF ran a program called “Fast and Furious” out of their Phoenix office whereby the let assault rifles “walk” into the hands of the Mexican drug cartels and various border bandits.

Two of those ATF “walked” guns, which were sold by a Phoenix area gun shop with the knowledge of ATF, were found at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.

While various investigations are on-going at the federal level, there appear to be important state law issues involved in this situation.

I specifically call your attention to Arizona Revised Statutes Title 13 Section 1201 “Endangerment”

13-1201. Endangerment; classification

A. A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.

B. Endangerment involving a substantial risk of imminent death is a class 6 felony. In all other cases, it is a class 1 misdemeanor.

Evidence is mounting that field agents within the Phoenix office of ATF warned their superiors that the “walking” of guns could lead to the deaths of, among others, federal agents.

The warnings of these dedicated and honorable law enforcement officers were ignored by their superiors. The end result was Border Patrol agent Brian Terry died as a result of these “walked” guns.

Arguably senior officials in ATF are chargeable for endangerment under state law.

I would urge you and your staff to look into the record that has been developed so far by the US House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and the sworn testimony by various ATF employees with an eye on what, if any, state criminal laws were violated in the course of the “Fast and Furious” project.

I am suggesting ARS 13-1201 as just one of what may be many examples of violation of state criminal laws by ATF officials.

There is a fundamental issue at stake here.

Sometimes the federal government operates as though it is not subject to any law, even at the federal level. At times it becomes obvious that in the pursuit of their mission, they disregard state law, placing their mission ahead of the public safety and well-being of the people within a state.

Just because they might be federal employees or even federal law enforcement officials, they do not have any kind of immunity for violations of the state criminal code.

I urge you to look closely at the conduct of ATF within Arizona, and investigate whether or not that conduct violated state criminal laws, And if you find the conduct of the ATF senior management did indeed violate state law, please hold those ATF officials accountable to the people of Arizona.

Thank you

Hugh Holub
Attorney at Law
P.O Box 4773
Tubac, Arizona 85646

This would indeed be a great way for Arizona to hit back at the Feds after the whole SB 1070 fiasco. In fact, we'll know there's something to this if the Feds drop their suit against Arizona relative to the state's immigration law in return for Arizona's AG dropping any potential case against ATF agents.

Time for Arizona to start going on offense.

h/t Sipsey Street