FBI Mis-conduct....Everywhere
Washington (CNN) -- It sounds like the plot of a bad movie:
bugging your boss' office. Sending naked photos around to co-workers. Sexting
in the office. Paying for sex in a massage parlor.
But it all happened in the federal agency whose
motto is "fidelity, bravery, integrity" -- the FBI.
These lurid details are outlined in confidential
internal disciplinary reports obtained by CNN that were issued to FBI employees
as a way to deter misconduct.
The FBI hopes these quarterly reports will stem
what its assistant director called a "rash of sexting cases"
involving employees who are using their government-issued devices to send lurid
texts and nude photos.
"We're hoping (that) getting the message
out in the quarterlies is going to teach people, as well as their supervisors
... you can't do this stuff," FBI assistant director Candice Will told CNN
this week. "When you are given an FBI BlackBerry, it's for official use.
It's not to text the woman in another office who you found attractive or to
send a picture of yourself in a state of undress. That is not why we provide
you an FBI BlackBerry."
While the vast majority of the FBI's 36,000
employees act professionally, the disciplinary reports issued by the agency's
Office of Professional Responsibility show serious misconduct has continued for
years.
From 2010 to 2012, the FBI disciplined 1,045 employees
for a variety of violations, according to the agency. Eighty-five were fired.
The internal reports over the last year don't
specify job titles, names or the location of the employees. Yet, they provide
exact details of their misdeeds:
-- One employee engaged in a "romantic
relationship with former boyfriend (now husband) knowing he was a drug/user
dealer. Employee also lied under oath when questioned during the administrative
inquiry about her husband's activities."
-- Another FBI worker "hid a recording
device in supervisor's office. In addition, without authorization, employee
made copies of supervisor's negative comments about employee that employee
located by conducting an unauthorized search of the supervisor's office and
briefcase." It said the employee "lied to investigators during (the)
course of the administrative inquiry."
-- An FBI supervisor "repeatedly committed
check fraud and lacked candor under oath."
-- One employee "was involved in a domestic
dispute at mistress' apartment, requiring police intervention. Employee was
drunk and uncooperative with police" and "refused to relinquish his
weapon, making it necessary for the officers to physically subdue him, take the
loaded weapon and place employee in handcuffs."
-- In other cases, an employee was charged with
DUI for the second time, one used a lost or stolen credit card to buy gas, and
another was caught in a child pornography sting operation, according to the
internal reports.
All of the employees in these cases were fired.
More FBI employees were disciplined for their
transgressions, including one woman who -- according to the reports --
"used (a) personal cell phone to send nude photographs of herself to other
employees" which "adversely affected the daily activities of several
squads." Another FBI worker e-mailed a "nude photograph of herself to
ex-boyfriend's wife." Both employees received 10-day suspensions.
Another who visited a massage parlor "and
paid for a sexual favor from the masseuse" received a 14-day suspension.
And an employee who used a government-issued BlackBerry "to send sexually
explicit messages to another employee" was suspended for five days.
Will expressed surprise at some of the behavior
outlined in the reports.
"As long I've been doing this ... there are
days when I think 'OK, I've seen it all,' but I really haven't," Will
said. "I still get files and I think, 'Wow, I never would have thought of
that.'"
Some of the recent cases follow what
CNN uncovered in 2011 after obtaining several years of the internal
disciplinary reports. Those reports included incidents involving FBI employees sleeping
with informants, a sex tape made by an agent and his girlfriend, tapping into
FBI databases for unauthorized searches, viewing pornography on bureau
computers and other cases of drunk driving.
The FBI Agents Association -- which advocates
for active and former FBI agents -- said the incidents should be considered in
the proper context.
"It is important to note that the ratio of
disciplinary issues among FBI agents are among the lowest in the federal
government and private sector," the association's president Konrad Motyka
told CNN.
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