Eric Holder Manipulated Mainstream Media to Taint Fast/Furious Investigation

How many AGs does it take to manipulate the Mainstream Media?
One, but first they have to want to be manipulated.

Just before Halloween, the Justice Department released a Friday Document Dump to a select few of its favorite mainstream media (the NY Times for example) about a program under the Bush Administration called Operation Wide Receiver, a program similar to Fast and Furious without the part about allowing the drug cartel to get weapons.

Lanny A. Breuer, was told in April 2010 that Arizona-based agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had allowed a gun trafficking ring to buy hundreds of weapons and send them to Mexico as part of an investigative tactic, according to newly disclosed documents.

The briefing received by Mr. Breuer did not involve Operation Fast and Furious, the disputed gun trafficking investigation run by the A.T.F.’s Phoenix office that is now the center of a Congressional inquiry. Rather, it involved a similar but earlier investigation, called Operation Wide Receiver, conducted by the A.T.F.’s Tucson office in 2006 and 2007.

The purpose of the dump (whose reports just "happened" to be published in the liberal media the day before the Senate Judiciary Committee was to hold hearing on Fast and Furious.) was to make it look as though the Senator  Grassley investigation was being partisan by looking at an Obama operation while ignoring a Bush one. But emails obtained by The Daily Caller indicate:

that congressional staffers leading the investigation into Operation Fast and Furious requested information about Operation Wide Receiver — a Bush administration program – and other similar cases, more than a full month before the DOJ leaked information to selected media outlets on October 31,

The emails show Grassley staffers inquiring about the Bush administration program as early as mid-September.

“Mr. Newell told us in his interview that there were 2 or 3 cases other than Fast and Furious where there were unsuccessful controlled deliveries at the border,” wrote a Grassley investigator on September 13, to a Holder staffers handling congressional inquiries on Operation Fast and Furious. “He said these examples occurred in the 2007 to 2008 timeframe.”

Bill Newell was the lead Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent tasked to Fast and Furious.

“In one case,” the Grassley staffer wrote, “he said the guns actually crossed the border but through some miscommunication they were not interdicted on the other side by the Mexican authorities. In the other case, the trafficker did not actually cross the border, but evaded U.S. law enforcement surveillance on this side of the border.

“You indicated today that there was an effort at the Department to get an understanding of previous controlled delivery cases that might raise similar issues in Fast and Furious. Were the two cases Newell described among them? Has the Department put together a detailed timeline of the sort you had today on each of the other unsuccessful controlled delivery cases? Is something like that in the works? Has the Department received inquiries about these other cases by the OIG?”

It appears Holder’s team didn’t answer any of the investigator’s questions. Instead, the Justice Department held the information and related documents until the night before Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer was scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The DOJ selectively picked which news outlets received the leaked documents, and which documents were released. And their favorite news media bout their scam lock, stock, and barrel. I wonder if they enjoyed being manipulated, or if they even care.