as soon as we found out about kevin o'reilly who was a national security adviser at the time of this program was in touch with the phoenix office about this, they shipped him off to iraq, and he is unavailable for comment or to answer any questions by investigators. not to mention president obama's senior adviser for latin america was also getting briefed on program. and so why does this matter to you? why does this matter to young people, why is this a topic you should be interested in? fast and furious is, like i said, a huge scandal. it's a scandal with many scandals in a scandal. whether it's the justice department turning law-abiding gun dealers into criminals to push their own anti-second amendment political agenda, the documentation backs that up, the internal e-mails back that up, whether it's the attorney general changing his story under oath and not being held accountable for this, whether it's the whistleblowers who, like i keep saying, were the only ones who were actually being factual, having their careers destroyed. just today, actually, and this week the new atf direct

we've noted a connection the white house to kevin o'reilly at the national security council. do you think the white house's refusal to share documents limited the scope of your investigation? and what this committee be well served by pursuing an investigation in an avenue? >> as we noted in the report, we did not get internal communications for the white house and mr. o'reilly's unwillingness to speak to estimated possible to pursue that angle of the case on the question had been raised. >> would probably be worthwhile. >> certainly we have sought to pursue every lead we could. so from our standpoint it was the lead we wanted to follow. >> thank you very much. as mr. burton pointed out -- and say, mr. burton pointed out from the doj has been of cooperating with groups like media matters with a spin on stories so they'll come out in a positive manner. and i imagine the press office and all of doj has been concerned about that. it actually troubles me there is such a political asset to what goes on in the doj about executive agencies, you hope to doj would be the one about poli

kevin o'reilly, can you tell us a little bit about your efforts to try to interview kevin reilly, a member of the national security team? >> we reached out to his lawyer, requested an interview. we have no basis to compel interviews from individuals who are outside the department of justice. he does not work in the department just so we had to ask for a voluntary interview, and his lawyer told us he would not appear voluntarily. >> would it surprise you that he has been in afghanistan and we have been denied even the ability to serve him a subpoena. >> i was not aware of where he was but i was told by his attorney -- i don't recall knowing where he was, but we were told he would not appear voluntarily. >> also, there was a full-time employee of the department of homeland security. would you explain your efforts to interview that individual? >> there was an agent from the department of homeland security that was assigned to the operation. as part of our ever to be thorough an interview all people who might have information, he began -- he again is out of the part of justice, so he declined

kevin o'reilly, can you tell us a little bit about your efforts to try to interview kevin reilly, a member of the national security team? >> we reached out to his lawyer, requested an interview. we have no basis to compel interviews from individuals who are outside the department of justice. he does not work in the department just so we had to ask for a voluntary interview, and his lawyer told us he would not appear voluntarily. >> would it surprise you that he has been in afghanistan and we have been denied even the ability to serve him a subpoena. >> i was not aware of where he was but i was told by his attorney -- i don't recall knowing where he was, but we were told he would not appear voluntarily. >> also, there was a full-time employee of the department of homeland security. would you explain your efforts to interview that individual? >> there was an agent from the department of homeland security that was assigned to the operation. as part of our ever to be thorough an interview all people who might have information, he began -- he again is out of the part of justice, so he declined