Former ‘Fast and Furious’ Prosecutor Accused of Retaliatory Leak
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David De Lossy/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) — The “Fast and Furious” gun-walking controversy is back in the headlines.
This time, a Justice Department Inspector General’s report says that a former top federal prosecutor decided to get back at whistleblower John Dodson by leaking a story that Dodson also supported allowing guns to get into the hands of U.S. criminals and Mexican drug cartels.
Former Arizona prosecutor Dennis K. Burke told the Justice Department that he gave Fox News an internal memo, stating that Dodson, an ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) Special Agent, supported walking guns along the Southwest border.
In actuality, Dodson proposed going undercover in 2010 as a straw purchaser and delivering firearms to suspected traffickers. He later criticized the operation to Congress.
Burke said that he didn’t think he did anything illegal by leaking the document implicating Dodson. Meanwhile, he also turned over documents to The New York Times that one of the guns used in the “Fast and Furious” operation was at the scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent had been murdered.
The prosecutor and several other officials resigned as a result of the botched operation in which law enforcement officials lost track of hundreds of firearms.
Meanwhile, Burke has since joined a global security firm.
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