The director of ATF has resigned--notably, before the 'high-earning' pension years.
Maybe these little items had something to do with it:
"A report on ATF is expected soon from Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, whose office has been investigating allegations that Truscott put through or proposed hundreds of thousands of dollars of unnecessary plan changes and upgrades to ATF's new 438,000-square-foot headquarters. The building, under construction in northeastern Washington, is at least $19 million over budget.
Sources familiar with the project told the Washington Post this year that Truscott planned to buy, among other things, nearly $300,000 in extras for the new director's suite, including a $65,000 conference table and more than $100,000 for hardwood floors, custom trim and other items. These sources described Truscott as overly focused on the building's luxurious details, from soap dishes to tile colors and said he wasted valuable time with innumerable project meetings and field trips to the site....
Justice investigators also questioned ATF employees about a costly trip that Truscott and others took to London last year and about allegations that ATF staff members helped assemble a school video report for a young relative of Truscott's, according to officials interviewed in the inquiry and who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation."
There are also Congressionally-inspired audits of ATF's raids on gun-shows (which occurred last year.)
BATF/E has always been a repository for rummies, cowboys, and mis-fits. The question now is whether DHS will assume the BATF/E culture or whether BATF/E will actually be reformed by DHS control.
My bet: they're both hopeless. One of GWB's successors may have to dismantle this monster.
HT: Of Arms and the Law
Not that some of your observations aren't correct, but you should at least get the acronyms correct. First off it is ATF, not ATF/E or BATF or BATFE. And ATF does not fall under the Department of Homeland Security. They never have. They are under the Department of Justice. They were not in trouble for "raids" at gun shows but for profiling firearms purchasers. They have a lot of baggage, but atleast be accurate when you slam them.
ReplyDeleteSorry--I'm old enough to remember the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
ReplyDeleteHappy to know they're not DHS, even though they act that way.
And the incidents in question involved BATF agents wandering around at Gun Shows, taking names of buyers, and then going to their homes and asking the WIFE (or whoever answered the door) whether "X told her that he was buying a gun..."
Technically, not a raid. Invasive, yes.