Will Rand Bring Booth to Justice?

As regular readers of this blog and Pajamas Media know, I've been running down the story of Lee Franklin Booth since October of last year. My first story on the subject was Felons Can’t Own Guns. So How Did This Guy Acquire Three … Gun Companies?

It included enough details—including a photo of Booth holding two Detonics handguns in direct violation of federal law—to put Mr. Booth in prison for a very, very long time. Mr. Booth subsequently had an attorney contact Pajamas Media and I threatening legal action over the story, and even after a through vetting by lawyers, Pajamas Media determined there was nothing to retract, and only a three minor points to correct.

In short, we "had the goods" on Mr. Booth as best as we could determine. Our evidence came from interviews with multiple sources, and from legal documents.

Even pictures allegedly taken with Booth's own camera.

After the article was published, I pushed for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) to arrest Booth based upon the compiled evidence. The main office in Washington DC contacted the regional office in Charlotte, NC, and they were very anxious to talk to me... until they read the article. The same day, I received a curt return call from the agent, who told me they had "no interest" in pursuing the case.

I was stunned, to put it mildly, that a federal law enforcement agency was refusing to prosecute what appeared to be an open-and-shut case handed to them on a silver platter. When I could get no co-operation from the BATF (apparently they aren't interested in gun-runners if there isn't a cult to burn) I contacted state and local authorities, who very very interested in putting Booth behind bars... only to be stopped by the BATF.

The BATF had "launched an investigation" and as a federal agency, had precedence over the local and state authorities. But interestingly enough, sources claimed that the BATF had no interest in working with the state and local authorities, or in seeing their evidence. It seemed the "investigation" was merely a screening mechanism to keep other agencies at bay.

The BATF was protecting a convicted criminal linked to three gun companies.

It simply made no sense.

Then I found out that a BATF agent out of Charlotte was going forward with his own investigation of Booth, only to be blocked within his own agency. To put it mildly, it was looking like corruption or a cover-up, or a combination of the two.

Then the logic bomb hit. Booth was being protected.

It didn't take long for sources to confirm that Booth was a confidential informant for the federal government, the specific branch of which I have chosen not to reveal. Was is also apparently the correct tense to use, as Booth is apparently losing, or has lost his protected status as an informant.

Now that he is not longer apparently being protected, and evidence of his apparent criminality is easily obtained, I have high hopes that the United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of North Carolina with step in and bring this convicted felon back to trial.

U.S. Attorney Ripley Eagles Rand just stepped into the job in January of this year and if his office's press releases are any guide, he's done a heck of a job putting away perverts. I'd like to see Mr. Rand use his office to investigate and prosecute Mr. Booth, or at least order the BATF to close their "investigation" so that justice can finally, after long last, move forward.