Reporter Says Dept. of Justice Referred Him to Media Matters Over Fast & Furious Inquiry

A reporter for the Washington Free Beacon said Friday the Department of Justice referred him to the left-leaning Media Matters in response to an inquiry about the Operation Fast and Furious scandal.

CJ Ciaramella was inquiring about claims in a new book by conservative commentator Katie Pavlich suggesting an FBI cover-up of a weapon found at the scene of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry's death.

The email Ciaramella said he received in reply from a Department of Justice spokeswoman stated she "was told to direct your questions to the FBI, and also to provide you with a link to this story: https://mediamatters.org/research/201204190011.”

The link is to a Media Matters story titled, "Fast And Fallacious: Pavlich's Book On ATF Operation Filled With Falsehoods."

Ciaramella noted that the Media Matters link didn't even address his question.

In "Fast and Furious: Barack Obama's Bloodiest Scandal and the Shameless Cover-Up," Pavlich says there was a third gun connected to the operation found at the scene of Terry's death -- not just the two previously acknowledged -- and that its existence was covered up to protect a confidential informant.

Under Operation Fast and Furious, weapons flowed unchecked across the U.S.-Mexico border and into the hands of Mexican drug cartels, after which they began turning up at violent crime scenes. The scandal has been the subject of an ongoing congressional investigation.