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U.S. Attorney in AZ Subpoenaed by Congress Over Fast and Furious

The Chairman of the U-S House oversight committee is subpoenaing a top official in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Arizona over the gun running program Fast and Furious.

Critics say the investigation has become a political witch-hunt, but Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) is continuing his aggressive inquiry into the ATF program that allowed around fourteen hundred U-S guns to be sold to Mexican drug cartels. Now Issa wants to compel testimony from Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona.

In a letter announcing the subpoena, Issa accuses Cunningham and the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s office of playing an “outsized role” in the program.

The ATF program Fast and Furious made national headlines when two guns from it surfaced near the body of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry. The letter also accuses Cunningham of providing “inaccurate and misleading” information to officials at the Justice Department. According to the subpoena, Cunningham needs to appear at a deposition next Tuesday.

 

 

Based on Capitol Hill, Matt Laslo is a freelance reporter who has been covering Congress, the White House and the Supreme Courtfor more than five years. While he has filed stories for more than 40 local NPR stations, his work has also appeared in The Atlantic, The Chattanooga Times Free Press, National Public Radio, The Omaha World-Herald, Pacifica Radio, Politics