The next hearing on Gunwalker

should be starting right about now. (fill in your favorite deity) knows what all's going to come out at this point. Especially with the news about the FBI playing games with the NICS system, which apparently went over really badly at HQ
The William LaJ. FOX piece on the FBI's perversion of the NICS checks to facilitate the Gunwalker plot "went off like a bomb" in the Hoover building, according to my sources. "Command deck panic," said one, with institutional mid-levels looking at Mueller and Company askance and asking "What would J. Edgar do?" The source answered that question: "Boy, I'll bet J. Edgar is some kinda pissed." He added, "He didn't mind breaking the law, but he was purely allergic to getting caught at it."
In one of the Joe Leaphorn mysteries, Leaphorn is considering the FBI and thinks that 'there are really only two things that will REALLY get an agent in trouble: bringing bad publicity onto the Bureau, and having an original thought'. With bad publicity being worst. So here's a combination of both which directly connects the Effin'BI with Gunwalker, and whatever other projects are going on at various ATF offices.

Speaking of 'directly connected',
**At a March 5, 2010 briefing, ATF intelligence analysts told ATF and DOJ leadership that the number of firearms bought by known straw purchasers had exceeded the 1,000 mark. The briefing also made clear these weapons were ending up in Mexico.

** ATF and DOJ leadership kept their own personnel in Mexico and Mexican government officials totally in the dark about all aspects of Fast and Furious. Meanwhile, ATF officials in Mexico grew increasingly worried about the number of weapons recovered in Mexico that traced back to an ongoing investigation out of ATF‟s Phoenix Field Division.
...
G. March 5, 2010 Briefing

FINDING: At a March 5, 2010 briefing, ATF intelligence analysts told ATF and DOJ leadership that the number of firearms bought by known straw purchasers had exceeded the 1,000 mark. The briefing also made clear these weapons were ending up in Mexico.

Two months after the January 5, 2010 briefing, ATF headquarters hosted a larger, more detailed briefing. Not part of the normal Tuesday field ops briefings, this special briefing was dedicated to Operation Fast and Furious. David Voth, the Phoenix Group VII Supervisor who oversaw Fast and Furious, traveled from Phoenix to give the presentation. On videoconference were the four southwest border ATF SACs: Bill Newell in Phoenix, Robert Champion in Dallas, J. Dewey Webb in Houston, and John Torres in Los Angeles. (Emphasis supplied, MBV)

In addition to the usual attendees of the Tuesday morning field ops briefings (the Deputy Assistant Directors for Field Operations, including Bill McMahon, and Mark Chait, Assistant Director for Field Operations), Deputy Director William Hoover also attended. Joe Cooley, a trial attorney from the gang unit at Main Justice, also joined. After a suggestion from Acting ATF Director Ken Melson in December 2009, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer personally assigned Cooley as a DOJ representative for Operation Fast and Furious. Kevin Carwile, chief of the Capital Case Unit at Main Justice, may have also been present. According to Steve Martin, the inclusion of Main Justice representatives was unusual.
I'd say that implicates them, wouldn't you? I would think it also trashes Melson trying to play "I didn't REALLY know what was going on!"