FBI agents have used photos of young female support staff employees posing as children or sex workers to lure sexual predators on social media websites, Department of Justice inspectors say.
A report by the department’s Office of the Inspector General submitted late last week found that one agent used photos of FBI support employees who were not certified as undercover agents without getting consent from their superiors.
DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz reported that the agent “said he was ‘fishing’ on social media sites but not recording which sites he used.
“The (agent) did not inform the support staff employees’ supervisors that the employees were involved in (undercover) operations, and the (agent) advised the support staff employees who provided photographs to not tell anyone, including their supervisors.”
Horowitz said that while employees’ faces were blurred and they were clothed in the photos, they were nevertheless potentially put in danger.
“The FBI had no documentation or information regarding whether the photographs still appear on the websites or how long the photographs appeared on the websites, during which time the photographs could have been — and potentially could still be — downloaded, copied, or further disseminated,” the report said.
The Inspector General said the conduct “poses potential adverse consequences for non-(agent) employees participating in (undercover) operations, including potentially placing them in danger of becoming the victims of criminal offenses.”
Horowitz demanded the FBI create a policy governing the use of such employees in undercover operations in which their written consent would be required and the operations be carefully documented and monitored.
FBI Executive Assistant Director Brian Turner wrote in response that the agent’s conduct is being reviewed by the bureau’s Office of Professional Responsibility and promised that new guidelines will be developed “in the coming weeks.”
“Upon publication, the FBI will also ensure that the FBI personnel who engage in (undercover) operations are aware of the new guidelines and trained on the requirements,” Turner wrote.
The FBI agent probably took the pics home with him. Creep. 😒
Besides, I thought the FBI/DOJ had a huge cache of illegal images they could use for their perverted fishing schemes. 😒
So contacting a fake solicitation is illegal, but posing as a solicitor to entice is completely legit and legal.
Unfettered use is just that. A perfect example here. How does this example figure in to the Byrne grant folks?
So they used photos of adult women? Yet the men are being charged with attempting to entice a child? Are they admitting that teenage girls and adult women really aren’t that different, and that, while it’s reasonable to have an age of consent and to expect men to abide by it, that treating violations of age of consent laws as abhorrent and unnatural is inconsistent with so many teenagers being virtually indistinguishable from adults? I’m not arguing to lower the age of consent, but simply to have laws pertaining to it that reflect that it is somewhat arbitrary and there is no reason to think that violators of age of consent laws have “unnatural” predilections any more than any other criminal does.
“FBI agents have used photos of young female support staff employees posing as children or sex workers to lure sexual predators on social media websites…”
So, they are using photos of adult women to put people in prison for seeking out underage females.
A lot of concern for the safety of support staff, but zero for the possibility that adults were not seriously considered children and so entrapment ensued. Or were the support staff minors?
Let me get this straight.
The FBI uses their employees to entice a person to commit a sexual crime. Meaning they put their resources out there and spend money on a crime that has not been committed yet but the FBI are forcing to take place by entrapment. So there are more resources lost for those that do not fall for it – but yet these employees are resources that can not now be used for actual crimes that are already committed and will be committed (such as terrorism, arson, ID theft). Think about all these crimes that slip by the FBI because they are concentrating on crimes that have not taken place yet.
Its time to turn the tables on these a**holes who want to entrap people. If someone tries to lure you online, REPORT them. I don’t care if its the FBI or not. Just report them. After all, THEY are the ones who are committing felonies by trying to offer sex.
Time to defund these abuses of power and lock these people up for fraud.
This reminds me of scene in ‘ A few good men ‘ where the JAG wants to charge Cruise’s client with smoking Oregano. They know it wasn’t weed, but that doesn’t make a difference to them.
It’s not about the actual actions, it’s about perceived intent. It’s about what’s supposedly in the mind. Very puritanical and reeks of the inquisition.
The FBI aren’t the only ones who do this every law enforcement agency in the country do this.
The interesting thing about this article is the agent was putting employees in danger of committing a crime i wonder what that crime was and how many law enforcement agencies have committed this crime while enticing people on the internet.
We all know the fed’s fight crime with crime they’ll give drug dealers the drugs, help them sale it, arrest them and seizes all their money and assets for themselves while systematically destroying an entire race of people.
Thanks to the FBI’s new nation wide SORNA database they have a new second class citizens to make money off of that’s why all these poor neighborhoods throughout country are being regentrified they don’t need ghettos and project buildings anymore they got Megan’s Law
Good luck
They (LE) think of it as “low-hanging fruit.” It’s very easy and safe — no agent is ever going to get shot at, and it’s very popular. They have too many resources and too much time on their hands if they’re spending it on this kind of crap.
The inspector General is worried that the employees might become victims of criminal offenses but couldn’t give a rats ass about people being entrapped. Pathetic
Doesn’t this example prove a point that putting one’s face up on the internet means that anyone can harass or do worse to that person when they also discover their residency?
The FBI has to have consent that the possibility can occur to where you are stalked or worse.
Welp, isn’t that part and parcel today’s registry, but it’s done under the penalty of law?
So they use adult agents that appear to be underage to lure suspects in. This sure seems to undermine the states assertion that you are sure the individual you are talking to is underage. People claim all kinds of crap online and you are supposed to believe everything they tell you when in fact there is no way to tell if the person you are talking to are indeed underage or even who they say they are. This was one of my entire points in my case. Ludicrous, unless you have them on video talking to you live you have no idea who you are talking to for one thing, then you have no idea their age as many many many women, just as the undercover, look underage but are really adults. Insane… Just saying…
If these staff people are over 18 then they are not minors whether they appear to be young looking or not. The staff members are of legal age and not a teenager or child. In other words DOJ if my Grandmother sends a photo but chats on line that she is 16 she is still a a legal adult, odd adult but a legal adult. To bad the DOJ victim doesn’t chat back saying they are 16 to the DOJ staff member trying to entrap them…would that staff member then be arrested for chatting to a alleged minor?
Wait a minute…That looks like Jane from HR!
The FBI’s values are supposedly “Respect, Integrity, Accountability, Leadership, Diversity, Compassion, Fairness, and Rigorous obedience to the Constitution.”
As an American Citizen, you be the judge to whether the FBI — who supposedly serves this country, with such high esteem from the mainstream media — has lived up to its values.