“I'm tired of hearing from just [Justice Department] management, I want to hear from the people that actually are on the front lines doing this,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.
The committee will now seek to compel testimony from William Temple, special agent in charge of the Dallas Field Division, and Ronald Turk, associate deputy director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, later this month.
The hearing Thursday was meant to examine alleged lapses in the ATF's investigation into the trafficking of guns later used in the February attack that killed Zapata and wounded his ICE colleague, Special Agent Victor Avila.
An inspector general report was completed more than five years after the committee and Sen. Charles Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, inquired into Zapata’s murder. Zapata was killed by members of the Los Zetas drug cartel while on official business in Santa Maria del Rio, Mexico.
ATF Acting Director Thomas Brandon said Thursday he did not order Temple and Turk to skip the hearing -- but agreed with their decision not to appear, which drew a bipartisan rebuke from Chaffetz and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings.
“That puts us in a kind of awkward position. We got the boss, 'OK guys, you don't have to show up.' And that sends a hell of...
