A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to provide Congress with documents related to the failed law enforcement program, Fast and Furious.
In court on Wednesday, Judge Amy Berman Jackson said the DOJ has until October 1st to hand the files over to the House Oversight Government Reform Committee.
The department believes the documents should remain confidential.
President Obama has invoked his executive power to protect them from the public.
The House Panel argues the information may explain why the DOJ took nearly one year to admit that federal agents had engaged in “gun walking”.
The DOJ has long prohibited the practice, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives used it during an investigation in Arizona.
During the probe, investigators would purposely allow legal firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal buyers in hopes of tracking the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders.
The agency lost track of some 2,000 weapons, many of which wound up at crime scenes in both Mexico and the United States.
