New ATF chief B. Todd Jones joins an agency shaken by guns scandal

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Source: The Washington Post

He is a former Marine who has twice served as the first African American U.S. attorney in Minnesota. He’s a movie buff who likes to show clips from films during meetings to explain a point. He’s the father of five, a University of Minnesota law school graduate and a former military judge advocate.

B. (Byron) Todd Jones, 54, the man chosen to head the embattled Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, is also a seasoned prosecutor who chairs an advisory committee of U.S. attorneys across the country for Attorney General Eric Holder.

“Todd is a man of unquestionable integrity and ethical values,” said St. Paul Police Chief Thomas Smith, who has known Jones for years. “To be a good leader, you’ve got to be a great listener. That’s one of his main strengths.

Jones, along with Holder, is holding a town-hall meeting Thursday for ATF employees. He’s stepping into an agency rocked by the scandal of the controversial Operation Fast and Furious gun trafficking operation. What began in Arizona as an ambitious plan to follow guns bought by illegal “straw-purchasers” into the hierarchy of the Sinaloa Mexican drug cartel resulted in a seven-months-long congressional investigation.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/new-atf-chief-b-todd-jones-joins-an-agency-shaken-by-guns-scandal/2011/08/31/gIQASxzauJ_singlePage.html