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Forbes
Forbes
Business
Walter Pavlo, Contributor

Office Of Inspector General Releases Report On Unauthorized Contacts By FBI Employees With Media

The Department of Justice Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report on the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) contacts with the media. The report identified numerous FBI employees, at all levels of the organization and with no official reason to be in contact with the media, who were in frequent contact with reporters. The findings also identified social interactions between FBI employees and reporters that might have violated FBI policy and Department ethics rules. Past reports from OIG indicated agents taking tickets for a sporting event from television media, agents receiving tickets for a media gala and another where a former senior FBI official had numerous unauthorized contacts (lunch dinners and drinks) with media.

Office of Inspector General report cites FBI as giving leaks to media through cozy relationships with reporters getty

One of the more telling aspects of the report was that the FBI gave the appearance of compliance with its interactions with the media when the agency clearly had a problem. A limited number of the FBI records analyzed by OIG determined that most often agents assigned to a public affairs role did that role in accordance with policy. However, those who were not in that official role who were interviewed by the OIG acknowledged that they had media contacts but denied sharing any non-public law enforcement information during those contacts ... not quite sure what other reason there would be for speaking with a reporter ... didn’t realize they were so social. It should be noted that while the OIG did have information of one telephone number from an agent contacting another cell phone of a media person, the substance of those phone calls remains secret or subject to self disclosure. Because this was a non-criminal administrative misconduct review, the OIG had no legal basis to seek a court order to compel Internet service providers to produce to the OIG the content of any personal email communications for these FBI employees. So OIG had to rely on honesty.

That the FBI employees violated a policy is but one aspect of these media breaches ... it is likely that many citizens paid a price for these types of disclosures resulting in a the loss of freedom. Law enforcement working in conjunction with media on criminal investigations is something that should give us all a reason for concern. However, there might be one case out there that would really raise the curtain on this FBI/Media tactic in investigations.

Billy Walters was convicted in 2017 on insider-trading charges and served more than half of his five-year prison sentence before being granted clemency by President Donald Trump in January 2021. Walters challenged his appeal and also brought to light that a lead FBI agent on his investigation had leaked confidential grand jury information to both reporters at the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) and New York Times (NYT). Even though the prison term and the case are behind him, Walters filed a federal lawsuit that has the potential to go much deeper than any OIG investigation on FBI/Media contacts. According to Walters’ court filing, former FBI agent David Chaves, his supervisor George Venizelos and prosecutors Richard Zabel, Telemachus Kasulis and Daniel Goldman, who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the SDNY at the time, had a role in the FBI/Media leaks and the coverup that followed once the leak was disclosed.

According to Walters’ filing, incriminating evidence has been withheld by the Government, text messages and phone logs which indicate multiple calls between Chaves and NYT’s Ben Protess, including an approximately 21-minute call on April 20, 2014. “The content of those text messages and phone calls—and all other confidential information Chaves illegally conveyed to the press—remains unknown outside the DOJ and the recipients,” the filing claimed.

On June 10, 2014, the FBI approached Walters for the first time, but he declined to speak with them. The very next day, The NYT ran another story that contained new details about the investigation, including the specific dollar amounts that Walters allegedly earned in the stock trades under scrutiny. The timing of the articles and the FBI showing up demonstrate an uncanny and unsavory side of using the media as an investigative weapon.

One would think that discovery of this type of information, especially as part of a criminal trial with so much at stake, would lead to the charges being dropped. Nope. U.S. District Judge P. Kevin Castel, who was hearing the Walters criminal case, ultimately ruled that the FBI’s actions were not enough to toss the case, but stated the following about the FBI/Media connections, “To say I was shocked would be an accurate statement.” 

Judge Castel referred the matter to the US Attorneys Office to review for possible prosecution for criminal contempt and/or obstruction of justice but not much has happened since then ... 2017! The defendants in Walters’ new civil case, including former US Attorney Preet Bharara, asked that the case against them be dismissed. US District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein is still considering whether or not the case will move forward. Bharara and others are arguing that “improper public statements or leaks” must show not just that there were improper disclosures, but also that “the improper disclosure in fact deprived the defendant of a fair trial.” One would think the leak alone would be cause enough to move the trial forward to see if there was something more sinister or if this was just a way of doing business in the Southern District of New York.

According to the OIG report, the FBI leak investigation was hampered by two factors; 1) OIG frequently found that the universe of DOJ and FBI employees who had access to sensitive information that has been leaked is substantial, often involving dozens, and in some instances, more than 100 people and 2) Although FBI policy strictly limits the employees who are authorized to speak to the media, they found that this policy appeared to be widely ignored ... the large number of FBI employees who were in contact with journalists during this time period impacted OIG’s ability to identify the sources of leaks.

Walters’ case might be the only way to determine the extent that law enforcement is communicating with the media to assist in brining criminal cases.

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