Fast And Furious Report: No Evidence DOJ Leadership Knew Of Gunwalking Tactics

[Bill USA]

4. The Dept of Justice employs about 120,000 people as attorneys, agents, investigators etc. It is

is considerably more complex than driving the titanic. Activities of the dept of justice such as investigations and prosecutions of crimes are extremely complex involving detailed knowledge of the cases with a multitude of decisions to be made. The ATF has about 5,000 employees. When you are talking about an organization this large (or, for that matter, one considerable smaller) of necessity, there has to be a number of levels of management to make the whole thing work.

Thus, it really isn't practical for the AG to be directly involved with operational decisions of investigations (as an example). You have to have people who can devote much more of their time to just the investigations going on (as an example) involving certain crimes to manage them and make necessary decisions. You need to have managers closer to the task who are fully informed as to what is going on to make those decisions.

Ultimately, Eric Holder is responsible for the activities of everyone in the DoJ but to pretend, as a practical matter, that Sec. Holder is privvy to or involved in operational decisions of the multitude of investigations, prosecutions, and legal related activities of the dept of Justice is not really sensible. If he was to be checking in on all the decisions, which by the way, dept heads and in the case of investigations - the cheifs of investigation teams are paid to make, he would probably need a [font size="+1"]2400[/font] hr day to keep up with such micromanagement efforts.

The really salient point of the IG's investigation and conclusions is the determination that there was no evidence to support the notion that anybody at DoJ lied to, or with-held information from Congress.


Here is an organization chart for the Department of Justice. As you can see Holder has a Deputy Attornery General under him who has a Associate Attorney General under him and a Solicitor General. you will see there are 8 divisions and 6 law enforcement agencies and 29 offices in the DoJ.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice

Leadership offices
Office of the Attorney General
Office of the Deputy Attorney General
Office of the Associate Attorney General
Office of the Solicitor General

Divisions
Antitrust Division
Civil Division
Civil Rights Division
Criminal Division
Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD)
Justice Management Division (JMD)
National Security Division (NSD)
Tax Division


Law enforcement agencies

Several federal law enforcement agencies are administered by the Department of Justice:

United States Marshals Service (USMS)
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) National Institute of Corrections

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)
Office of the Inspector General (OIG)

Offices

Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR)
Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys (EOUSA)
Executive Office of the United States Trustee (EOUST)
Office of Attorney Recruitment and Management
Office of the Chief Information Officer
Office of Dispute Resolution
Office of the Federal Detention Trustee (OFDT)
Office of Immigration Litigation
Office of Information Policy
Office of Intelligence Policy and Review (OIPR)
Office of Intergovernmental and Public Liaison
Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance
- Bureau of Justice Statistics
- Community Capacity Development Office
- National Institute of Justice
- Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking Office (SMART)
- Office for Victims of Crime
Office of the Police Corps and Law Enforcement Education
Office of Legal Counsel (OLC)
Office of Legal Policy (OLP)
Office of Legislative Affairs
Office of the Ombudsperson
Office of the Pardon Attorney
Office of Privacy and Civil Liberties (OPCL)
Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR)
Office of Public Affairs
Office on Sexual Violence and Crimes against Children
Office of Tribal Justice
Office on Violence Against Women
Professional Responsibility Advisory Office (PRAO)
United States Attorneys Offices
United States Trustees Offices
Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS)
Community Relations Service