The move is part of a larger shuffle at the Justice Department: the U.S. attorney in Phoenix is stepping down as well, according to the Washington Post.
Nelson will become the senior advisor on forensic science in the department's Office of Legal Policy. He will be replaced at the ATF by B. Todd Jones, the U.S. attorney in Minnesota, the department said in a publicly released statement.
The shakeup comes after months of controversy surrounding the agency's "Operation Fast and Furious," a now-defunct operation that targeted Mexican gun traffickers but that has since been linked to the killing of a U.S. Border Patrol officer. Republicans in Congress have condemned the ATF over the incidence and are pushing to learn whether senior Justice Department officials were involved.
The operation was responsible for the sale of thousands of firearms to known and suspected straw purchasers for Mexican drug cartels. Numerous ATF agents testified that they were told to monitor the sale of thousands of guns in the Southwest region with the hopes of tracking them back to the drug cartels. However, they allege that they were ordered to abandon the surveillance of the weapons, allowing them and the buyers to disappear.
As a sign of the continuing fallout, Dennis Burke, the U.S. attorney in Phoenix who worked closely with the ATF, has resigned.
