ATF’s illegal cigarette operation again
This was making the rounds back in February. But it seems to have gotten new life:
Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used a secret, off-the-books bank account to rent a $21,000 suite at a Nascar race, take a trip to Las Vegas and donate money to the school of one of the agents children, according to records and interviews.
Agents also used the account to finance undercover operations around the country, despite laws prohibiting government officials from using private money to supplement their budgets, according to current and former government officials and others familiar with the account.
The revelations highlight the lax oversight at the A.T.F. that allowed agents and informants to spend millions while avoiding the normal accounting process. The Justice Departments inspector general, who is investigating the secret account, criticized the A.T.F. recently for mismanagement and said the agency did not know how many informants it had or how much they were paid.
They really just flaunt their lack of accountability like no one else.
April 13th, 2017 at 11:27 am
Lt Col Ollie North did something similar, back in the day, in a significantly more complicated multiparty effort that raisee money off the federal book. This was to support Contras in Nicaragua when Congress wouldn’t appropriate funds for the anti-Sandinista efforts of the Reagan administration.
Wrong then, wrong now. Although maybe more justified back in the 1980s, what with the Soviet Union involved and a Democrat Congress here. Congress must be in the appropriations loop, to exercise both legislative oversight and exercise the power of the purse over federal agencies.