(HorizonPost.com) – Senator Chuck Grassley announced last week that his office had obtained internal government records through a whistleblower that provided new details about the Biden administration’s decision to shut down a government operation into Mexican cartels, CBS News reported.
The documents provided by the whistleblower confirmed the existence of Project Thor, a multi-agency operation led by the ATF to crack down on weapons trafficking between the United States and Mexico.
CBS News first reported on Project Thor in September last year in a CBS Reports documentary “Arming Cartels: Inside the Mexican-American Gunrunning Networks.”
Senator Grassley forwarded the documents to nine federal law enforcement agencies last Thursday, including law enforcement in the Justice Department, Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, and the US Postal Service.
According to Senator Grassley, the documents confirm that Project Thor was a successful operation before the administration abruptly closed it down in 2022.
In a March 21 letter accompanying the documents, Grassley said the American people deserved to know the details of the Biden administration’s strategy to combat the cartels’ firearms trafficking and Congress would be conducting “independent oversight” on each agency’s role in Project Thor.
Grassley questioned whether the administration was committed to combatting the cartels in light of its decision to abruptly close down Project Thor.
The US Postal Service confirmed to CBS News that it received Senator Grassley’s letter.
Justice Department spokesman Peter Carr also confirmed receipt of Grassley’s letter and told CBS News that the DOJ maintains “an ongoing, high-level, and extremely productive dialogue” with the Mexican government to combat cross-border weapons trafficking.
Carr said since Congress passed the Safer Communities Act in 2022, which includes a new statute on firearms trafficking, the Justice Department has charged over 300 people.
Senator Grassley’s latest disclosures are part of an inquiry he launched in October to find out why the Biden administration canceled Project Thor while it was simultaneously praising the operation’s success.
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