Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry's Family Files Lawsuit against ATF

The family of murdered Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry has filed a $25-million lawsuit against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, claiming "negligence" and "a violation of ATF's own policies and procedures" resulting in the death of their son.

A separate lawsuit against The Lone Wolf Trading Company stated that "but for defendants' negligent and illegal sales ... Brian Terry would not have been murdered."

Terry was killed when his unit was ambushed near the Arizona-Mexico border on the night of December 14, 2010.  Two AK-47s found at the scene were part of an ATF gun-walking operation allowing the illegal purchase of weapons by straw buyers, who then sold them to a Mexican drug cartel.

Interviewed by Fox News in November, Terry's mother expressed the general feeling of anyone now familiar with Fast and Furious.

If they never let the guns walk, maybe Brian would not have been out that day[.] ... I just can't believe our own government came up with a program like this that [let] innocent people get killed."

Attorney General Eric "My People" Holder, whose Department of Justice oversees the ATF, has claimed for over a year that he knew nothing about the logic-defying, deadly, and secretive program known as Fast and Furious.  President Obama has shielded Holder from charges of perjury, obstruction, and conspiracy.

In October Obama stated that he has "complete confidence" in his Attorney General.

He has been very aggressive in going after gunrunning and cash transactions that are going to these transnational drug cartels in Mexico. He's indicated he was not aware of what was happening in Fast and Furious. Certainly I was not.

And I think both he and I would have been very unhappy if somebody had suggested that guns were allowed to pass through that could have been prevented by the United States of America. 

Agent Terry's family, Agent Zapata's loved ones, the Mexican government, and  the American people deserve the truth.  Justice must be served.  The family's legal action gives us hope that the guilty will finally be held responsibl­e.  After all, no one is above the law.

Read more M. Catharine Evans at Potter Williams Report.