In Wake Of Parkland School Murder, Senate Judiciary Cmte Questions Why Obama DOJ Forced FBI To Delete 500k Fugitives From Background Check Database

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department under Barack Obama directed the FBI to drop more than 500,000 names of fugitives with outstanding arrest warrants from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, acting FBI deputy director David Bowdich testified Wednesday.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing about law enforcement's faulty response to Parkland, Florida shooter Nikolas Cruz, California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bowdich about the removal.

"That was a decision that was made under the previous administration," Bowdich testified. "It was the Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel that reviewed the law and believed that it needed to be interpreted so that if someone was a fugitive in a state, there had to be indications that they had crossed state lines."

"Otherwise they were not known to be a fugitive under the law and the way it was interpreted," he added.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced the Justice Department will "aggressively" pursue any person who lies on their background check.