In the first paragraph of a Los Angeles Times article today detailing a letter from Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to Attorney General Eric Holder, Richard A. Serrano writes:

The Justice Department is trying to protect its political appointees from the Fast and Furious scandal by concealing an internal “smoking gun” report and other documents that acknowledge the role top officials played in the program that allowed firearms to flow illegally into Mexico, according to the head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

A review of the Issa-Grassley letter, which includes excerpts from ATF acting director Kenneth E. Melson's testimony to congressional investigators, utterly debunks Serrano's claim.

According to the letter, Melson did not say that there is “an internal 'smoking gun' report... acknowledg[ing] the role top officials played” in the ATF's Operation Fast and Furious. Here's what Melson said about the “smoking gun” (emphasis from the Issa-Grassley letter):

I assigned a task force of agents to read through all the [Reports of Investigation or ROIs] to determine whether or not the allegations that were being made by individuals in CBS and Senator Grassley were true or not, because frankly we didn't think they were true.

They did a review of those and found nothing that would indicate that that was true, then asked them to bring to me all the ROIs that pertained to [one defendant] in particular and I read through those and found ROIs that indeed suggested that interdiction could have occurred, and probably should have occurred, but did not occur.

And it was at that point that I took that ROI and gave it to our people and the Department.

In fact, we briefed and gave it to [the Associate Deputy Attorney General with responsibility for ATF] in particular, because to me that was a smoking gun that we really needed to look at the rest of this particular case.

Melson's “smoking gun” deals with the failed strategy behind Fast and Furious, not who knew about that strategy. It consisted of reports generated by ATF agents on the ground which “suggested that interdiction could have occurred, and probably should have occurred, but did not occur.” It informed him that “we really needed to look at the rest of this particular case,” not that “top officials” were involved in the program. Indeed, Melson indicates that he himself was unaware of the particulars of the program before it had been reported on in the media.

While the Issa-Grassley letter calls on DOJ to produce the ROIs Melson cites, it does not suggest that the “smoking gun” details the involvement of “top officials”:

The Department should produce the documents identified by Mr. Melson months ago for the Deputy Attorney General's Office as critical to his understanding that the allegations in this case raise valid concerns. Specifically, the Department should not be withholding what Mr. Melson described as the “smoking gun” report of investigation or Mr. Melson's email regarding the wiretap applications.