In an editorial this morning, The Washington Examiner claims that Attorney General Eric Holder “should fire his aides -- or get fired himself” due to what the editorial suggests is either incompetence by the aides or a lack of candor about what Holder knew about the failed ATF sting Operation Fast and Furious and when he knew it.

Specifically, the Examiner claims that “senior Holder aides” knew about the operation's controversial tactics, and that it is “highly unlikely” they didn't inform the Attorney General:

[The Justice Department says] Holder knew about the program, but did not know about the program's details. But the emails obtained by CBS News show that is highly unlikely. For instance, an Oct. 17, 2010, email from Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Criminal Division Jason Weinstein to Deputy Chief of the National Gang Unit James Trusty, questions the wisdom of having Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer attend a press conference associated with Fast and Furious, “given the number of guns that have walked.” These emails make clear that senior Holder aides knew that allowing dangerous gun sales to go forward were at the heart of Operation Fast and Furious. It's highly unlikely that they did not alert Holder to these facts, Best case: Holder has surrounded himself with incompetents and should fire them forthwith. Worst case: Holder lied when he denied knowing about the gun-running scheme and should get the boot himself. [emphasis added]

The Weinstein email to which the Examiner refers states: “Do you think we should try to have Lanny participate in press when Fast and Furious and Laura's Tucson case are unsealed? It's a tricky case, given the number of guns that have walked, but it is a significant set of prosecutions.”

But according to DOJ, Weinstein's references to “guns that have walked” wasn't to Operation Fast and Furious, but rather to “Laura's Tucson case,” which Justice Department sources identified as the Bush-era Operation Wide Receiver. According to DOJ, as in Fast and Furious, Wide Receiver involved ATF allowing guns to be trafficked in hopes of tracing them and taking down a trafficking network. DOJ says Trusty and Weinstein did not know that guns had been walked in Operation Fast and Furious at the time of their email exchange.

If the Washington Examiner board wants to learn more about Wide Receiver, they can read the Associated Press articles on the subject posted on the Examiner website here, here, here, and here.