Exclusive: FBI allowed informants to commit 5,600 crimes
Brad Heath
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USA TODAY exclusive: New documents show FBI agents gave their informants permission to break the law thousands of times in 2011.
WASHINGTON — The FBI
gave its informants permission to break the law at least 5,658 times in a
single year, according to newly disclosed documents that show just how
often the nation's top law enforcement agency enlists criminals to help
it battle crime.
The
U.S. Justice Department ordered the FBI to begin tracking crimes by its
informants more than a decade ago, after the agency admitted that its
agents had allowed Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger to operate a
brutal crime ring in exchange for information about the Mafia. The FBI
submits that tally to top Justice Department officials each year, but
has never before made it public.
Agents
authorized 15 crimes a day, on average, including everything from
buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and
plotting robberies. FBI officials have said in the past that permitting
their informants — who are often criminals themselves — to break the law
is an indispensable, if sometimes distasteful, part of investigating
criminal organizations.
"It
sounds like a lot, but you have to keep it in context," said Shawn
Henry, who supervised criminal investigations for the FBI until he
retired last year. "This is not done in a vacuum. It's not done
randomly. It's not taken lightly."
USA TODAY obtained a copy of the FBI's 2011 report
under the Freedom of Information Act. The report does not spell out
what types of crimes its agents authorized, or how serious they were. It
also did not include any information about crimes the bureau's sources
were known to have committed without the government's permission.
Crimes
authorized by the FBI almost certainly make up a tiny fraction of the
total number of offenses committed by informants for local, state and
federal agencies each year. The FBI was responsible for only about 10%
of the criminal cases prosecuted in federal court in 2011, and federal
prosecutions are, in turn, vastly outnumbered by criminal cases filed by
state and local authorities, who often rely on their own networks of
sources.
"The
million-dollar question is: How much crime is the government tolerating
from its informants?" said Alexandra Natapoff, a professor at Loyola Law
School Los Angeles who has studied such issues. "I'm sure that if we
really knew that number, we would all be shocked."
A
spokeswoman for the FBI, Denise Ballew, declined to answer questions
about the report, saying only that the circumstances in which its
informants are allowed to break the law are "situational, tightly
controlled," and subject to Justice Department policy. The FBI almost
always keeps its informants' work secret. The agency said in a 2007
budget request that it has a network of about 15,000 confidential
sources.
Justice
Department rules put tight limits on when and how those informants can
engage in what the agency calls "otherwise illegal activity." Agents are
not allowed to authorize violent crimes under any circumstances; the
most serious crimes must first be approved by federal prosecutors.
Still, the department's Inspector General concluded in 2005 that the FBI
routinely failed to follow many of those rules.
The
rules require the FBI — but not other law enforcement agencies — to
report the total number of crimes authorized by its agents each year.
USA TODAY asked the FBI for all of the reports it had prepared since
2006, but FBI officials said they could locate only one, which they
released after redacting nearly all of the details.
Other federal law enforcement agencies, including the ATF and the DEA, said last year that they cannot determine how often their informants are allowed to break the law.
"This
is all being operated clandestinely. Congress doesn't even have the
information," said Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., who sponsored a bill
that would require federal agencies to notify lawmakers about the most
serious crimes their informants commit. "I think there's a problem here,
and we should have full disclosure to Congress."
Bulger,
long a notorious Mob figure, is facing murder and racketeering charges
in federal court in Boston. Prosecutors allege that he used his status
as an FBI informant to steer police away from his own crime ring. Bulger
has not disputed some of the charges against him, but his lawyers
insist that he was not an informant; the former crime boss on Friday
called the case "a sham."
Follow reporter @bradheath on Twitter.
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