(TheConservativeTimes.org) – Montana lawmakers, Rep. Matt Rosendale and Senator Steve Daines, are demanding answers from the ATF and IRS after agents temporarily closed down a Great Falls gun store to search for financial documents.
Last Wednesday, more than 20 armed agents from the ATF and the IRS Criminal Investigation Unit spent hours searching through records at Highwood Creek Outfitters, seizing several boxes of documents, including Firearms Transaction Records (ATF Form 4473), which contain personal information on prospective gun buyers.
According to the Billings Gazette, neither the ATF nor IRS would comment on the search. The IRS only clarified that agents from the Criminal Investigation Unit were there “as part of their official business.”
In response to the search, Rep. Rosendale announced in a press release on Friday, June 16, that he had contacted IRS Commissioner Daniel Werfel and ATF Director Steven Dettelbach to get answers on the armed search, which he called “outrageous.”
In his letter, Rosendale blasted the search as an example of the Biden administration’s weaponization of federal agencies to “target and harass” Americans who exercise “their constitutional rights.”
Rosendale accused the Biden administration of using the raid to “intimidate” gun dealers and suggested that the recent targeting of US gun stores is being “orchestrated directly from the White House.”
Rosendale demanded to know the purpose of the raid and the evidence that prompted it. He asked why the agencies needed “such a large armed police presence” to carry out the raid and how much money the agencies are spending on raiding “firearms-related businesses.”
On Wednesday, Montana Senator Steve Daines sent a similar letter to Commissioner Werfel seeking clarification on what took place at Highwood Creek Outfitters.
Senator Daines has asked Werfel to explain the scope of the search warrant and if the agencies communicated with state and local law enforcement before conducting the June 14 raid. He asked that the IRS confirm reports that ATF Form 4473s were among the documents seized.
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