Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst and the outside of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (Getty Images)
"Biden’s ATF must stop bending the law to fit their gun-grabbing policies," she added.
Ernst sent her 2022 letter just one month after the ATF began its straw purchasing crackdown. In it, she detailed reports and videos that had surfaced showing ATF agents engaging in such investigations. Ernst noted that those interactions involved ATF agents knocking on the front doors of private residences and asking residents to display the recently purchased firearms to prove they did not commit a straw purchase.
"In all of the ‘knock and talk’ incidents brought to my attention, none involved the presentation of a warrant," Ernst wrote.
Ernst said ATF agents often arrive at the house in full gear, wearing bulletproof vests and do not inform residents at the homes that producing the firearm was optional.
"The combination of these factors calls into question whether the ATF’s actions are meant to harass or coerce firearm purchasers into, at best, legally questionable ‘investigations,’" she stated.
The senator requested that Attorney General Merrick Garland provide details about the ATF investigations, including how the organization establishes probable cause to conduct these visits, as well as whether they obtain a warrant. She also called on the ATF to reveal how many "knock and talks" they have conducted since the ramp-up began in late July.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) talks to reporters following the weekly Senate Republican policy luncheon in the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 14, 2023 in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The letter requested that Garland respond within 30 days.
Footage from one knock and talk incident in July showed ATF agents arriving at a Delaware man's home. The man had reportedly purchased seven firearms since January.
Agents on the scene admitted to the man that they did not have a warrant. They also offered some insight into how they choose to make a visit.
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"The idea is that when you purchase more than two guns at a time it generates a multiple sales report, and it comes to us, and we have to check them out," the agent said to the citizen. "That’s all that is. You did nothing wrong – absolutely zero."
The man ultimately produced one of the firearms. The agents then matched the serial number and left.
Fox News Digital reached out to the DOJ for comment.
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on X at @BGillespieAL.
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