Melson's replacement will be the current U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Acting ATF chief steps down

The controversy over the Fast and Furious anti-gun-trafficking operation upended the careers of two Justice Department officials Tuesday as the interim head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was transferred to an obscure, new post and the well-connected chief federal prosecutor in Arizona resigned.

ATF’s current acting director, Ken Melson, will move to Justice’s Office of Legal Policy this week to become a senior adviser on forensic science, the Justice Department said. Dennis Burke, the U.S. Attorney for Arizona who oversaw prosecutions in that state related to the Fast and Furious operation, stepped down and left the federal government.


Neither Attorney General Eric Holder’s statements nor one from Burke made direct reference to the high-profile congressional investigation or a separate Justice Department probe into the ATF-led operation, which was aimed at reducing the flow of guns to Mexican drug gangs but allegedly allowed as many as 2,000 firearms to pass into the hands of criminals.

However, Holder and Burke — a prominent figure in Arizona politics — both made vague allusions to distractions currently facing federal prosecutors in Arizona.

“I am grateful to Dennis for his dedication and service to the Department of Justice over these many years and commend his decision to place the interests of the U.S. Attorney’s office above all else,” Holder said.

“My long tenure in public service has been intensely gratifying. It has also been intensely demanding. For me, it is the right time to move on to pursue other aspects of my career and my life and allow the office to move ahead,” Burke said in a statement confirming that he’d submitted his resignation to President Barack Obama.

At a House hearing in June, ATF agents complained that their efforts to seize weapons and arrest alleged traffickers were impeded by the unwillingness of federal prosecutors in Burke’s office to intercede immediately after suspicious gun buys. The agents said prosecutors blamed judicial rulings about the evidence needed to prove gun trafficking or other crimes.

Sources in Washington and Arizona said Burke was summoned for an interview on Aug. 18 by the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Burke quickly became the focus of heated questioning and ire from Republicans, a source close to Burke said.

“My understanding is it did not go well,” the source said. “The bottom line is someone’s head needed to roll. … No one at the Justice Department wanted to back him up.”

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement that Melson and Burke both acknowledged to the panel that “mistakes were made and that Operation Fast and Furious lacked adequate protections for public safety. Fresh leadership will allow ATF to move forward and focus on its vital mission of enforcing our nation’s gun laws.”

A lower-ranking prosecutor who dealt with the Fast & Furious operation, Emory Hurley, was also reassigned from criminal cases to civil litigation, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. The change, which took place Monday, came at his own request, the spokeswoman said.

The White House had no comment Tuesday on the personnel moves.

Holder offered no reason for Melson’s reassignment, but simply noted his long tenure at the department and his expertise in forensics.

Melson, a veteran federal prosecutor, took the top spot at the ATF on an interim basis in 2009 and oversaw the execution of Fast and Furious, an effort that was aimed at rooting out gun smugglers selling weapons to Mexican cartels. Investigators say the ATF lost track of as many as 2,000 guns that were sold during the operation, including two that were found near the scene of the killing of a Border Patrol agent last December.

In July, Melson gave a lengthy interview to congressional investigators outside the presence of — and without advance notice to — DOJ’s legislative affairs team. In the interview, Melson said he had objected to aspects of DOJ’s plans for handing the legislative inquiries and that he had been told not to tell Congress why mid-level ATF officials with responsibility for the Fast and Furious operation were reassigned.

His decision to do a unilateral interview with Congress, coupled with repeated news reports that he planned to resign, led to suggestions that he was at odds with top Justice Department officials who wanted him out.

However, Melson’s attorney, Richard Cullen, told POLITICO that Melson was happy with the transfer.

“He’s going back to Main Justice, so he’s pleased with the new assignment. He knew that he was not going to be at ATF forever,” Cullen said. “If you look at the actions of the department, I think they’ve treated him well.”

Cullen said he was unaware of precisely why Melson was moved out of his job overseeing the ATF and of whether it was related to the handling of the Fast and Furious operation. “Obviously, the leadership at the department is privy to their reasoning on it,” Cullen said.

Asked if Melson regrets his actions in connection with the troubled operation, Cullen said: “He, like everybody else connected with this, are waiting for the official report from the inspector general, and he’s withholding comment until they’ve had a chance to interview the key people and make their conclusions. … He feels he gave his all at ATF and looks back now on that fondly.”

Melson’s replacement is B. Todd Jones, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota. Jones “is a demonstrated leader who brings a wealth of experience to this position,” Holder said. “I have great confidence that he will be a strong and steady influence guiding ATF in fulfilling its mission of combating violent crime by enforcing federal criminal laws and regulations in the firearms and explosives industries.”

A House investigation of the Fast and Furious operation found emails showing that Melson was regularly informed of the problems with the investigation.

Issa initially called on Melson to resign, but reversed course in July, saying that Melson should not be forced out until the facts about the operation were fully known.

In a statement Tuesday, Issa said “the reckless disregard for safety” by the Justice Department “certainly merits changes” in personnel.

But the committee will continue to investigate Fast and Furious “to ensure that blame isn’t offloaded on just a few individuals for a matter that involved much higher levels of the Justice Department,” Issa said. “There are still many questions to be answered about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious and who else bears responsibility, but these changes are warranted and offer an opportunity for the Justice Department to explain the role other officials and offices played in the infamous efforts to allow weapons to flow to Mexican drug cartels.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who has been probing the operation since early this year, said he would not be surprised if there are more personnel moves as the facts emerge.

“Today’s announcement is an admission by the Obama administration that serious mistakes were made in Operation Fast and Furious, and is a step in the right direction that they are continuing to limit any further damage that people involved in this disastrous strategy can do,” Grassley said in a statement.

The ATF has been without a permanent director since 2006. The confirmation process for the Obama administration’s nominee, Andrew Traver, the head of the agency’s Chicago office, has stalled under opposition from the National Rifle Association.

Burke’s exit leaves the Arizona federal prosecutor’s office without a Senate-confirmed leader as lawyers there pursue the case against Jared Loughner, the man accused of a January shooting spree that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and left six others dead.

Holder praised Burke’s work regarding the tragedy, and said his office’s “quick response to the devastating shootings in January that claimed the lives of several people and critically injured Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was crucial in arresting and charging the alleged shooter.”