Breaking: Issa Subpoenas AZ US Attorney Criminal Division Chief

Darrell Issa
Darrell Issa (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

USA –-(Ammoland.com)- “District of Arizona Criminal Division Chief Patrick Cunningham will resign from the US Attorney’s office effective January 27. He was Burke’s #1 guy,” this correspondent reported exclusively yesterday on The War on Guns blog.

“Burke” is Dennis Burke, the former United States Attorney for the District of Arizona who resigned in the wake of revelations concerning his role in the Fast and Furious gunwalking scandal.

Now from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform comes this bombshell, giving further details on what’s going on with Cunningham:

Issa Subpoenas Criminal Division Chief from Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office

WASHINGTON, DC – House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) today announced the issuance of a subpoena to Patrick J. Cunningham, Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Arizona. Mr. Cunningham’s repeated refusals to testify voluntarily have forced the Committee to use compulsory process.

“During the course of our investigation, the Committee has learned of the outsized role played by the Arizona U.S. Attorney’s Office – and you specifically – in approving the unacceptable tactics used in Fast and Furious,” Chairman Issa wrote to Cunningham in a letter informing him of the subpoena.  “Senior Justice Department officials have recently told the Committee that you relayed inaccurate and misleading information to the Department in preparation for its initial response to Congress. 

“These officials told us that even after Congress began investigating Fast and Furious, you continued to insist that no unacceptable tactics were used.  In fact, documents obtained confidentially just last week appear to confirm that you remained steadfast in your belief that no unacceptable tactics were used, even after the Department’s initial response to the congressional inquiry.  Given that the Attorney General has labeled these tactics as unacceptable and Fast and Furious as ‘fundamentally flawed,’ this position is startling.”

The subpoena requires Cunningham to appear on Tuesday, January 24, 2012 for a deposition.

Read Issa’s letter to Cunningham here.


About David Codrea:

David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance.

David Codrea

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Albert Schellenberg

If anyone new Patrick, he was a supporter of the NRA, not of mischievous malevolence. He is a good man. Only a fool would understand that Patrick was any but less than a mastermind. Patrick knew that David Briant had commissioned 7 Felonies at the AZ DEQ and got out to help where he could. Jan Brewer would only assist in getting him out of the State while the State Promoted David Briant to the Department of Revnue – while my wife and I got out of a sinking ship. The problem dealt with Amanda Stone, Phil McNeely and Mike… Read more »

Carli Cane

This is typical Obama Administration blame dodging. The administration anti-gun, and doesn’t understand the nature of the problems happening in Mexico.

Republican’s in the house should see this for what it is a massive DOJ coverup.

Victor Wagon

The record clearly indicates that the USDOJ and Attorney General Eric Holder is attempting to blame others for an investigation his justice department began, was aware of and is no disavowing. The Fast and Furious investigation began in 2009, months before Cunningham even started at the US Attorney’s office in 2010.

Eric Holder should resign.