I know, I know. If you read the write-ups on the Justice Department’s Inspector General report on Operation Fast & Furious, you might believe the IG exonerated Attorney General Eric Holder for his role. But even House Oversight Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) (H/T: Allahpundit) could tell there is more to this report when he said “Attorney General Holder has clearly known about these unacceptable failures yet has failed to take appropriate action for over a year and a half.”

Yesterday, former Acting Director of the ATF Kenneth Melson, who had been reassigned from that role but was still at the DoJ, and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jason Weinstein were thrown under the ever higher Obama bus and resigned. This follows the resignations of U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke of the Phoenix office and Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich (who was mentioned in the report, but not highlighted, although his role was substantial) more than a year ago. But others named in the report, former Deputy Attorney General Gary Grindler (Holder’s current Chief of Staff), Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer who heads the Criminal Division, and Holder’s former Deputy Chief of Staff Monty Wilkinson (he works at the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys) are all still at the Department. Everyone of the miscreants still at the DoJ (and those I mentioned who are now gone) was involved in sending the false February 4, 2011 letter to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), along with a subsequent May 2, 2011 letter to the Senator, that denied ATF was allowing guns to be sold to straw buyers and making their way to Mexican drug cartels. The withdrawal of the February letter in December, 2011 confirms Grassley was lied to. Worse, the report shows all of these people at one point or another knew Operation Fast & Furious guns were found at the murder site of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, yet continued to make their spurious ATF claim.

It never mattered how much Holder or any of his underlings knew or didn’t know about Operation Fast & Furious before Agent Terry and 300 Mexicans were murdered by criminals using OF&F guns. The fact of the matter is Holder, and with help from Obama, has been covering up the role of his and his DoJ crew for nearly 2 years, letting those involved with the cover up stay at the DoJ without any consequence whatsoever. For this, Holder, Grindler (Holder’s current Chief of Staff), Breuer, and Wilkinson, along with others who were part of this lethal fiasco should be immediately fired.

UPDATE: Via RedState, The Right Scoop has video of DoJ IG Michael Horowitz testifying to the Issa’s House Oversight Committee that the White House blocked information from emails between an ATF supervisor prominently named in the report, Bill Newell, and National Security Council staffer Kevin O’Reilly. The cover up goes all the way up to Obama.

Cross-posted at Scipio the Metalcon.