Fast and Furious Circus: ATF released suspect to gather information on two FBI Informants

This is an extremely significant development in the Fast and Furious scandal. Earlier this week, we learned that the lead suspect in the investigation - Manuel Celis-Acosta - was apprehended near the Mexican border back in May 2010 with loaded "AK type" magazines and was already under investigation for firearms trafficking. He should have been arrested then and there but lead ATF case agent Hope MacAllister let him go after getting his predictably empty promise that he would help her track down a couple of drug lords.

That was bad enough but now, thanks to the Los Angeles Times, we learn that those two drug lords were FBI informants:

When the ATF made alleged gun trafficker Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta its primary target in the ill-fated Fast and Furious investigation, it hoped he would lead the agency to two associates who were Mexican drug cartel members. The ATF even questioned and released him knowing that he was wanted by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

But those two drug lords were secretly serving as informants for the FBI along the Southwest border, newly obtained internal emails show. Had Celis-Acosta simply been held when he was arrested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in May 2010, the investigation that led to the loss of hundreds of illegal guns and may have contributed to the death of a Border Patrol agent could have been closed early.

Yes, the man who may ultimately be responsible for so many guns going into Mexico AFTER being stopped in May of 2010, was released so he could track down two men who were already working for the FBI!!

Oh, what's that part about the DEA? Yeah, apparently ATF and DEA were both tracking Acosta unbeknownst to each other.

Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times/Tribune Washington Bureau show that as far back as December 2009 — five months before Celis-Acosta was detained and released at the border in a car carrying 74 live rounds of ammunition — ATF and DEA agents learned by chance that they were separately investigating the same man in the Arizona and Mexico border region.

ATF agents had placed a secret pole camera outside his Phoenix home to track his movements, and separately the DEA was operating a "wire room" to monitor live wiretap intercepts to follow him.

That's not all. When Acosta was finally arrested less than two months after Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's death - a death Acosta may have been directly responsible for - the ATF learned that the two drug lords were FBI informants. This information was known more than one year ago, when Acosta was arrested on February 2, 2011.

The ATF had hoped he would lead them to two Mexican cartel members. But records show that after Celis-Acosta finally was arrested in February 2011, the ATF learned to its surprise that the two cartel members were secret FBI informants.

This is relevant for at least two reasons. First, the Justice Department stonewall, which Rep. Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley have been dealing with for about as long, was hiding this very damaging fact. This revelation points directly at a coverup. Second, in testimony before the House Oversight Committee one year later, on February 2, 2012 Attorney General Eric Holder emphatically asserted and reiterated more than once that his Department would not release any correspondence after the February 4, 2011 letter from Asst Attorney General Ronald Weich to Grassley. That letter was proven to have been false and ultimately withdrawn by the DOJ about one year later.

Ronald Kolb posted one of these exchanges between Holder and Issa on February 2, 2012:

Congressman Darrell Issa from California later asked Holder if he would provide e-mails and communications past February.

Holder: As I have indicated, we are not going to be turning over after February...

Issa: Are you aware of the fact that by doing so, that the fact that we have already issued a subpoena, you are standing in contempt of Congress unless you give a valid reason[?] ... [O]therwise you will leave the committee no choice but to seek contempt for your failure to deliver or to cite a constitutional exemption.

These developments seem to indicate that with Acosta's arrest in February of last year came a realization at the highest levels of these departments that there would be serious implications if the truth came out. That coverup quite possibly began with the demonstrably false February 4, 2011 letter. Issa has been almost patient to a fault when it comes to issuing that contempt order he has threatened but this could do it. As Issa explained in an interview on Fox News recently, the contempt order he issues would go directly to the US Attorney for Washington, D.C. That person's boss is Holder. This obviously complicates things for the Committee chairman but these revelations about Acosta being a big fish released to gather intelligence on two informants from another agency could seriously ratchet up the political pressure on Holder to comply.

As for the deadly multiple agency circus, this video definitely seems to fit:



h/t Sipsey Street