And it only took him 4 years to comply.

In 2012, then-US Attorney General, Eric Holder, was found to be in contempt of Congress, in a bipartisan vote, for failure to turn over documents related to Operation Fast and Furious. Rather than assist in obtaining the needed documents, President Obama claimed executive privilege over the documents, even while claiming to know nothing about the operation that was active between 2009 and 2010.

Fast and Furious was a collaboration between the ATF and the Department of Justice that allowed for the sale and trafficking to violent Mexican drug cartels. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was murdered in December of 2010. Guns that were traced back to the Fast and Furious operation were found near the scene.

In 2012, Mexican beauty queen, Maria Susana Flores Gamez was killed in a shootout in Sinaloa, Mexico. A Romanian AK-47-type WASR-10 rifle was found near her body and was later traced back to a gun shop in Arizona, marked as part of the botched operation.

“El Chapo” Guzman, when arrested last year, was found to be in possession of weapons attached to Fast and Furious, as well.

In fact, there have been hundreds of Mexican citizens murdered as a result of Operation Fast and Furious, and thousands of guns are still unaccounted for.

President Obama’s claims to executive privilege, in regards to the requested documents was struck down in January of this year by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman.

From POLITICO:

Four years after asserting executive privilege to block Congress from obtaining documents relating to a controversial federal gun trafficking investigation, President Barack Obama relented Friday, turning over to lawmakers thousands of pages of records that led to unusual House votes holding Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt in 2012.

Jason Chaffetz, House Oversight Committee Chairman gave a statement in regards to the news of Obama’s compliance:

“Today, under court order, DOJ turned over some of the subpoenaed documents. The Committee, however, is entitled to the full range of documents for which it brought this lawsuit. Accordingly, we have appealed the District Court’s ruling in order to secure those additional documents.”

Hopefully, today’s developments will yield some answers for the family of Brian Terry and others who have felt the repercussions of this failed operation.