mr. winestein knew that a.t.f. had let hundreds of weapons walk in operation "operation wide receiver" was an earler, smaller-scale case than "fast and furious." in fact, in april 2010, he brought that fact to the attention of mr. brewer, his boss. now, april 2010 is eight months before i got involved in this investigation. his e-mail to mr. brewer about "operation wide receiver" said -- quote -- "as you'll recall from jim's briefing, a.t.f. let a bunch of guns walk in efforts to get upstream conspirators but only got straws and didn't recover many guns. some were recovered in mexico after being used in crimes." end of quote. it's ironic that that's how mr. winestein described "wide receiver." he was one of the officials who authorized wiretaps in "fast and furious." therefore, he was in a position to know that exact same description applied to "fast and furious." yet he allowed the myth to be perpetrated that a.t.f. would never do such a thing. mr. winestein saw the justice department's very first draft of the let