Memo Leaked to Retaliate Against Fast and Furious Whistleblower

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May 21, 2013

A former top federal prosecutor leaked an internal memo to retaliate against the lead whistleblower in the Fast and Furious gun-smuggling scandal, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

According to the Justice Department’s inspector general’s office, Dennis K. Burke, a former U.S. attorney, leaked the memo to a television producer to retaliate against ATF Special Agent John Dodson. Dodson had blown the whistle on the ATF’s program of allowing guns to be bought illegally and then attempting to track them to drug cartels in Mexico.

From the article:

The Dodson memo discussed a case he worked on in which he served as an undercover agent posing as an illegal straw purchaser providing firearms to a trafficker, and he discussed the tactic of "walking" firearms as a way to build an investigation. Burke saw the document as evidence that Dodson also condoned "gun walking" investigations, and personally emailed it to a friend in Washington with the intent of sharing it with a Fox News producer.

Burke left the U.S. attorney’s office after it was revealed that he also leaked a memo to The New York Times.

Read more at The Los Angeles Times.

Image from the Justice Department.

Topics: Whistleblower Protections

Authors: Andre Francisco

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