The US Department of Justice is investigating whether hundreds of FBI agents cheated on a test of new rules allowing the bureau to conduct surveillance and open cases without evidence that a crime has been committed.
In some instances, agents took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said.
In Columbia, South Carolina, agents printed the test in advance to use as a study guide, according to a letter to the inspector general from the FBI Agents Association that summarized the investigation. The inspector general investigation also was confirmed by current and former officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
“There are similar stories for practically every office, demonstrating the pervasive confusion and miscommunication that existed,” Konrad Motyka, the association’s president, wrote May 13 in the letter obtained by reporters.
Depending on the outcome of the investigation, agents could be disciplined or even fired.
FBI Director Robert Mueller was scheduled to testify before Congress yesterday, where the new guidelines and the cheating scandal were expected to come up.
The inquiry threatens to be another black eye for the FBI as it tightens controls after years of collecting telephone records and e-mails without court approval. That scandal has already upended management at one of the largest field offices in the US.
The FBI had no comment on the investigation on Tuesday.
Motyka’s letter urges the inspector general to focus instead on what he called the “systemic failure” of administering the test without consistent rules.
Agents should not be punished “because of a failure to effectively communicate the rules,” he wrote.
Such testing is unusual. FBI agents are required to take online training courses to stay current on bureau policies, but pass-fail tests are rare. In 2008, however, when the FBI received more leeway than ever in conducting surveillance and opening investigations, it assured Congress that it would train and test its agents to make sure they knew the rules.
The Domestic Investigations and Operation Guidelines allows the FBI, for the first time, to conduct surveillance for national security purposes without evidence of a crime. Agents are also allowed to consider race when opening early inquiries.
For instance, the FBI could look into whether the terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba had taken hold in a city if it had a large Pakistani-American presence.
Lawmakers and civil liberties groups were concerned that the new rules would allow racial profiling and other abuses. The FBI assured them they would not.
However, problems with the training and testing programs surfaced quickly. Last year, Assistant Director Joseph Persichini, the head of the FBI’s Washington field office that investigates congressional wrongdoing and other crime in the US capital, retired amid a review of test-taking in his office.
Persichini took the test alongside two of his most senior managers and one of the bureau attorneys in charge of making sure the exam was administered properly, current and former officials said. The two agents who took the test with him have been moved to headquarters while the investigation continues.
Meanwhile, critics remain concerned that the new guidelines could unfairly target innocent Muslims in terrorism and other criminal investigations.
“It’s quite an invasive data collection system,” said Farhana Khera, executive director of the nonprofit group Muslim Advocates.
“It’s based on generalized suspicion and fear on the part of law enforcement, not on individualized evidence of criminal activity,” Khera said.
The American Civil Liberties Union also weighed in against the new guide on Tuesday, asking FBI field offices in 29 states and Washington to turn over records related to the bureau’s collection of data on race and ethnicity.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The