U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday he fully supported Attorney General Eric Holder, who has come under scrutiny after a botched operation to track guns smuggled to Mexican drug cartels.
"I have complete confidence in Attorney General Holder," Obama said at a news conference. "He has been very aggressive in going after gun running and cash transactions that are going to these transnational drug cartels in Mexico."
The backing comes as Holder has been under fire over when and what he knew about the bungled operation, known as "Fast and Furious," that was aimed at tracking guns from the United States to violent Mexican drug cartels.
However, the weapons were not fully tracked after their purchase and some have been found at crime scenes in the United States and Mexico.
Holder has "indicated that he was not aware of what was happening in Fast and Furious. Certainly I was not," Obama said.
"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," he said.
The operation, run from late 2009 through 2010, has become a headache for the Obama administration and complicated diplomatic ties with Mexico, particularly because some of the guns sold have ended up at violent crime scenes.
In addition to a Justice Department inspector general probe, congressional Republicans have been investigating the matter, focusing on who approved the operation and who in the administration knew as well as when. (Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Jason Lange in Washington, editing by Doina Chiacu)