On Wednesday Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Department of Justice would be releasing thousands of documents related to Operation Fast and Furious to the House Oversight Committee.
“The Department of Justice under my watch is committed to transparency and the rule of law. This settlement agreement is an important step to make sure that the public finally receives all the facts related to Operation Fast and Furious,” Attorney General Jeff Sessions released in a statement.
The documents in question were previously withheld by former Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama, who asserted executive privilege to prevent their release in 2012.
The brother of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, who was killed as a result of the operation, called for the release of the documents earlier this week. During an interview on America's Newsroom Friday morning, he expressed gratitude to President Trump for their release.
"I want to thank President Trump for what he's done," Kent Terry said. "He promised when he becomes president, he was going to open up the books in my brother's death. And he did."
Operation Fast and Furious was a secret ATF program, overseen heavily at the highest levels at the Department of Justice, which took place between September 2009 and December 2010. ATF agents repeatedly and knowingly allowed individuals working for Mexican cartels to traffic thousands of AK-47s, .50 caliber rifles and handguns into Mexico. The operation ended in 2010 when Agent Terry was murdered and years of coverups surrounding his death and the extent of the operation ensued. Hundreds, if not thousands of Mexican citizens have been murdered as a result of the U.S. government putting guns into the hands of narco-terrorists and a number of firearms trafficked during the operation have been found at additional crime scenes in the United States.