Judge Grants New Life to 'Fast and Furious' Scandal

Orders Justice Department to hand over documents to Congress

A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with documents related to the "Fast and Furious" gunwalking scandal, opening a new front in a controversy that has dogged President Obama's administration since 2010.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson gave the department until Oct. 1 to hand the documents over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which has been probing the issue for almost four years, according to the Associated Press.

The scandal deals with a controversial practice known as "gunwalking," in which federal agents allow illegally purchased weapons to flow to high-volume arms dealers in an attempt to identify and track their whereabouts. The practice is prohibited by the Justice Department, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives made use of it at the end of George W. Bush's administration and the beginning of Mr. Obama's as part of an operation known as "Fast and Furious."