ATF Director Retires Amid Spending Probe
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Under scrutiny for his spending and management practices, Carl J. Truscott tendered his resignation earlier this month as head of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), but remained on the job as this edition went to press.
The resignation, announced in a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, is to be effective “on a mutually agreeable date.” No replacement had been announced.
It was the second time in recent memory that a career bureaucrat with strong ties to ATF had come under fire for his spending habits. Former ATF chief John McGaw stepped down from his post as head of the Transportation Safety Administration in the Summer of 2002 after complaints surfaced regarding his opulent spending.
McGaw had reportedly spent more than $418,000 to furnish his office, while dragging his feet on hiring air marshals, and doing his best to derail the then-fledgling armed pilots program.
This time around, Truscott—a 22-year veteran of the Secret Service who assumed command of the ATF in 2004—has been in the crosshairs for his spending and management practices. It is perhaps only coincidence that Truscott and McGaw both had careers with the Secret Service before moving to ATF, and finally seeing their careers undone amid the same types of allegations.
According to The Washington Post, Truscott’s spending on his office was under scrutiny. Earlier this year, the newspaper was reportedly tipped that Truscott planned to purchase about $300,000 in “extras” for his office including a $65,000 conference table. He allegedly also planned to spend more than $100,000 on hardwood floors and trim in the agency’s new headquarters in Northeast Washington, DC. That project is now running an estimated $19 million over budget.
Associated Press also reported that the probe includes “a pricey trip to London.”
A source in Washington suggested to Gun Week that part of the problem with the escalating cost of the new headquarters building could be directly related to the skyrocketing cost of construction in the area over the past 16 months.
Truscott was at the helm when ATF agents mounted an operation in Richmond, VA, in 2005 that became the subject of a House committee inquiry: A gun show program that had local police going to the homes of prospective gun buyers, or in some cases the homes of their neighbors, to inquire whether they knew that the individual was buying a gun at the Richmond show.
A similar project had been conducted in Pennsylvania, but it was the Richmond gun show “sting” that brought gun rights activists’ tempers to the boiling point because of what many considered the “heavy handed” conduct of ATF agents.
An attorney involved in the case at the time told Gun Week that the operation was “a debacle.” Operators of that gun show detailed their experiences to the House committee, and at the time, Gun Week was told by a spokeswoman for the agency that ATF would no longer conduct “residency checks” like the ones done in Richmond.
On the plus side, Truscott was being hailed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) as the administrator who “worked to ensure the rights of firearms retailers while fighting to reduce the criminal misuse of guns through joint industry and law enforcement programs such as Don’t Lie for the Other Guy, the straw purchase deterrence program.”
“ATF Director Truscott is a good and honorable man who has worked hard for the firearms community and the American people. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” said NSSF senior vice president and general counsel Lawrence G. Keane in the organization’s on-line newsletter, Bullet Points.
However, The Outdoor Wire noted that ATF lately has not been earning many kudos. The on-line bulletin criticized recent actions against custom gunsmiths, and chided what it called an “inexplicable lack of response to an almost-continual attack on the agency’s abilities by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.”
The Washington Post reported that Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine would be issuing a report on the ATF shortly. He has been leading the investigation into agency spending under Truscott that allegedly involved “hundreds of thousands of dollars of unnecessary plan changes and upgrades” to the agency’s new headquarters building.
The National Rifle Association, in noting Truscott’s resignation, reminded members and the industry that because of recent changes, any new nominee to replace Truscott would be subject to confirmation hearings and a vote in the US Senate.
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