A former FBI agent, defending himself against charges he stole law-enforcement information to commit stock fraud, tried to turn the tables yesterday with a wild claim he could have prevented 9/11 if he was allowed do his job.
From the Elgindy trial transcripts:
1 Q All right.
2 A The operation, we had an undercover operation put in
3 effect working with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police up in
4 Toronto. One of my informants was sent to the Mohawk
5 reservation in upstate New York where these people were
6 coming across, he was coming across. We identified a corrupt
7 Customs agent who was letting these people through as part of
8 the investigation and this task force up in this area, FBI
9 Customs Task Force interviewed my informant to find out if
10 the information was any good, gave me a call back, said the
11 information was solid, everything ready, good to go, ready to
12 start Tuesday.
13 On Thursday my informant got into a domestic
14 dispute with a girlfriend, one of the deals you shouldn't do
15 as an informant is tell people that you are working with the
16 FBI. She told the cops when they arrived there that he was
17 an informant with the Bureau and it became a little bit of a
18 public deal. My bosses knee jerked to it, decided to shut it
19 down rather than pursue it rather than the domestic dispute
20 that happened. I got upset because the domestic dispute had
21 nothing to do with the information, absolutely not. They
22 wouldn't reopen it. They blackballed my source, basically
23 Customs couldn't take him, DEA couldn't take him, nobody else
24 wanted to work him because our headquarters had blackballed
25 him. So, I shelved it, it went away, c'est la vie, then 911
SS, OCR, CSR, CM, CRR
Royer-direct-Gerzog 6834
1 happened.
2 911 comes up, I didn't think of it at that time,
3 but we found out later it was also put out in the public, I
4 don't know if it was a TV or in the press or something, came
5 out some of the possible hijackers had come across from
6 Toronto.
7 It wasn't a week later after this information came
8 out I got a call out of the Blue from my informant, said
9 guess where those people came across, guess who smuggled
10 them? So, I got very upset again. Here it was, so what this
11 information is sitting here, so what he had a domestic
12 dispute? Work the darn information, turned it over to the
13 CIA to see if they would work it. That way the credibility
14 of my informant wasn't an issue. Work it as an intel case,
15 not criminal.
16 So I called Homeland Security, talked to an
17 investigator there a couple of times, asked me to send the
18 information. They got stonewalled by the Bureau.
19 I called the investigator for the subcommittee on
20 terrorism.
21 Q Where?
22 A In the -- the senator of Oklahoma was on that
23 subcommittee at the time. So, one of his investigators --
24 Q This is the United States Senate we're talking about?
25 A Right, was going to conduct the interview, stonewalled
SS, OCR, CSR, CM, CRR
Royer-direct-Gerzog 6835
1 by the Bureau.
2 There comes a point in time when enough is enough.
3 There's one power in the country, the media, I said what
4 could I do to get it out there? I took the information or I
5 had Lynn bring me the information, a working file I had which
6 are documents I refreshed my memory of some of the dates,
7 times, places, names, brought it out to me when she was
8 coming out to San Diego to pick up a van or surveillance
9 vehicle for the Albuquerque office. I boned up on it. I
10 didn't take the file. It wasn't actually a file, some
11 working document of mine. I basically took the information
12 of to Dateline.
13 Q Who did you meet with at Dateline?
14 A The assistant producer who I did most of the interview,
15 Jess Bushyhead. I don't know how they set up the hierarchy,
16 an assistant producer, deputy producer. I basically talked
17 to Pat Weiland.
18 Q Did you ever ask Mr. Bushyhead or Mr. Weiland, that
19 really was his name?
20 A Yes.
21 Q Poor guy. Did you ask Mr. Bushyhead, Mr. Weiland to
22 give you money for this story?
23 A No.
24 Q Ever once?
25 A No.
SS, OCR, CSR, CM, CRR
Royer-direct-Gerzog 6836
1 Q You heard a number of $600,000 testified to. Did you
2 ask for $10 for yourself in connection with that?
3 A I have no idea where that came from. No, I did not.
4 Q What did Mr. Bushyhead and Mr. Weiland say to you about
5 your information?
6 A Mr. Weiland took me back in the editing booth, said I
7 want you to look at something. He showed me -- they cued it
8 up, a piece called the funding of terrorism. One of the
9 subjects they started talking about, wasn't out for release
10 yet, one of the subjects they talked about --
11 MR. LEVINE: Objection, hearsay.
12 MR. GERZOG: Videotape --
13 THE COURT: Sustained.
14 Q After you viewed the videotape, did you make plans to
15 go forward with more discussion with these folks from
16 Dateline?
17 A Yes, what I had told them was right up exactly in line
18 with what they had heard before.
19 Q Why didn't you go forward with it?
20 A I was arrested.
21 MR. GERZOG: Your Honor, would it be possible for
22 us to take a little bit early break? I have about 15 or 20
23 minutes more as we had talked about at side bar.
24 THE COURT: All right. Take a short break. Don't
25 discuss the case, folks. I'll escort you.
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