WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans investigating a bungled gun-trafficking probe in Arizona see vindication in a report that criticizes one of their favorite targets: Attorney General Eric Holder's Justice Department.
But the Justice Department inspector general's report absolves Holder of blame.
The report will be the subject of a hearing Thursday by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. The report faults the Justice Department for misguided strategies, errors in judgment and management failures in an operation that disregarded public safety and allowed hundreds of guns to reach Mexican drug gangs.
But the committee's chairman, Darrell Issa, and other Republicans will have to tread carefully. The report knocks down some of the wildest accusations Republicans have made about the Obama administration during the committee's investigation of the operation known as Fast and Furious.
