Issa Statement on Key Operation Fast and Furious Official's Disciplinary Action by the Arizona State Bar

Statement

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa issued the following statement responding to the Arizona State Bar's reprimand of former Obama Administration political appointee Dennis Burke, who served as the U.S. Attorney for Arizona during Operation Fast and Furious.

"Dennis Burke's disciplinary agreement with the Arizona State Bar makes clear his belief that Eric Holder's Justice Department was more interested in politically protecting itself than giving Congress full information about what happened in Operation Fast and Furious. Former ATF Director Kenneth Melson offered Congress a similar perspective.

"Burke's acknowledgement of wrongdoing to an Arizona court underscores the importance of ongoing federal court litigation the House Oversight Committee is pursuing as a result of the bipartisan 2012 vote to hold U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt for refusing to produce subpoenaed documents. These documents will shed light on the nature of the Department's false denials of improper conduct and its response to Congress, including misconduct of which Dennis Burke was aware, that Attorney General Holder refused to discuss with Congress."

"While Dennis Burke's discipline before the State Bar is undoubtedly deserved, I'm deeply troubled to see him describe and have the State Bar apparently accept at face value, the idea that his effort to retaliate against a Fast and Furious whistleblower was intended as an act of "transparency.' His actions to selectively leak a single document supporting a misleading narrative, though a common tactic in the Obama Administration, was a cowardly and self-serving action intended to smear a whistleblower."

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