Smith: Melson Reassignment Leaves Questions Unanswered

Washington, D.C. - House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) today issued the following statement on ATF Acting Director Kenneth Melson’s reassignment to the Office of Legal Policy.

Chairman Smith:  “The announcement by the Department of Justice to reassign Kenneth Melson is not the resolution Congress and the American people need.  This move by the Administration indicates that Director Melson may be being used as a scapegoat for a much larger problem within ATF and DOJ. It appears that other senior officials at DOJ may have been involved in this deadly operation. The American people and Congress will not be appeased until we have the whole truth about how and why Operation Fast and Furious was authorized.  Congress will not ignore an agency so out of control that its decisions and operations cost American lives.”