Judicial Watch's Farrell: Public 'Owed an Explanation' on Fast and Furious

A lawsuit against the Department of Justice over a controversial federal operation dubbed "Fast and Furious" will ensure the government doesn’t "foot drag and slow roll" the issue into obscurity, Judicial Watch official Chris Farrell said Thursday.

Farrell, the director of research and investigation for the conservative watchdog group, said the lawsuit will go after documents the government has refused to hand over to Congress pertaining to an operation that allowed weapons from the U.S. to pass into the hands of suspected gun smugglers so the arms could be traced to the leaders of Mexican drug cartels.

But the operation reportedly lost track of hundreds of firearms, many of which have been linked to crimes, including the fatal shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in December 2010.

"They made the decision to invoke executive privilege concerning this matter," Farrell said. "That's the position of the president of the United States and the attorney general … and no one seems to care. It's extraordinary."

Farrell said the Department of Justice is is just playing "rope-a-dope."

"They are stringing this thing out until 2020 as far as they're concerned," he said. "They're not going to try to really resolve the issue. They're going to foot drag and slow roll this thing so it either becomes forgotten or mooted out just by time and history."

He said he hopes the lawsuit will finally force a time frame for action.

"… In a matter of months they're going to have to provide some explanations or answers as to what they're doing or not doing," he said. "That adds an additional kind of pressure point, frankly, to their strategy. It makes it more difficult for them to slow walk this thing because we're going to be in front of a judge saying they're not even acting in good faith."

The stakes are high, he said.

"The American public is owed an answer on this."

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