Kenneth Melson will move to a new post in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Policy, the Justice Department announced Tuesday. He will take a role as a senior adviser for the country’s forensic science policy. Melson was appointed to the position in 2009.
The U.S. attorney in Minnesota, B. Todd Jones, will take Melson’s place as interim head of the ATF.
Attorney General Eric Holder, who oversaw the decision, stated he has “great confidence that [Melson] 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.”
For the past five years, the ATF has been without a permanent director. Holder said that Jones would also remain as the chief federal prosecutor in Minnesota as well as head the ATF.
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the ATF’s operation.
“There are still many questions to be answered about what happened ... and who else bears responsibility,” said Rep. Darrell Issa, the Committee’s chairman, after the decision was handed down to replace Melson. “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.”
Arizona Attorney Resigning
Officials also said that Dennis Burke, U.S. attorney for Arizona, is resigning in the wake of the scandal that took place during the “Operation Fast and Furious” program. He was overseeing prosecutions in the gun investigation.
Emory Hurley, an assistant federal prosecutor, will take Burke’s place in the Phoenix office.
ATF agents told lawmakers that they were ordered to stand down while gun buyers bought weapons that the agency knew went to Mexican drug cartels. They were then told to not make any arrests but instead to follow where the guns wound up.
Usually, the weapons would not be discovered unless they were found at a crime scene. Roughly 2,000 firearms were linked to the program, but only 600 were located.
The “Fast and Furious” program made national headlines after it was discovered that U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was shot to death in Arizona by gunmen armed with assault weapons sold to them illegally. It was reported that the gunmen possessed weapons purchased in the risky ATF program. The program was shut down in December after the incident.
