David Codrea:ATF now promoting book it tried to kill

In a bizarre twist within a more bizarre story, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is once more promoting a book it tried to suppress and is simultaneously suing him over, recently retired agent Jay Dobyns revealed Monday on the CleanupATF “whistleblower” website.

The book, “No Angel: My Harrowing Undercover Journey to the Inner Circle of the Hells Angels” became a New York Times bestseller that was critically-acclaimed as “a white knuckler,” as “compulsively page-turning” and as “absolutely amazing,” among the many rave reviews. Though the Bureau had been aware of the memoir since Dobyns began writing it, and had even promoted it on its internal webpage, that apparent blessing was reversed when their relationship with the agent became legally adversarial.

“In 2010, two weeks after I defeated DOJ's attempt to quash my lawsuit, ATF changed their position on my book,” Dobyns explained. “33 months after they became aware of it and with no prior interest or action, ATF and DOJ decided to counter-sue me over it.”

That makes it all the more difficult to understand why, after spending untold dollars funding “a team of no less than 10 government attorneys” in a time of supposed fiscal crisis, ATF once more finds itself trying to exploit Dobyn’s achievement as something they share credit in, even if it means undercutting its efforts to keep that achievement from succeeding.

“ATF is again promoting my book and putting it on display within the walls of the ATF Headquarters building in Washington, D.C.,” Dobyns explained, providing the photos accompanying this column to prove it. “It is being used to promote ATF's achievements on a wall labeled ‘ATF Authors’."

More Here at Gun Rights Examiner