National Journal: FBI Beefs up for Corruption Probes

If it seems like the FBI has been mighty busy investigating public officials lately (and it certainly seems that way to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK), Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) and others), it’s no accident. As Peter Stone reports in August’s National Journal (not available online), the FBI has put a major emphasis on bagging crooked pols:

According to FBI officials, cases involving corrupt government officials are now the bureau’s top criminal priority. The number of FBI agents focusing on public corruption has jumped by more than 40 percent—from 451 agents in fiscal 2001 to 641 in fiscal 2007. In 2005 and 2006, FBI probes were instrumental in the convictions of 1,060 government officials on corruption charges — 177 federal officials, 158 state officials, and 725 local officials and police — an increase of 40 percent from the previous two-year period.

In an interview with National Journal, Kenneth Kaiser, the assistant director of the FBI’s criminal investigative division, emphasized that public corruption probes typically are lengthy and require “a lot of evidence” to end in conviction. “Corruption cases are the most difficult to investigate and the most difficult to prosecute,” Kaiser said. “A lot of the time, we use very sophisticated techniques to make these cases.”

The increased emphasis, of course, goes beyond just Jack Abramoff, who’s at the center of what investigators call “Operation Rainmakers.” Stone reports that the Justice Department has hired an expert to train “65 FBI agents in election law nuances so they could better identify corruption.” And it means going where the corruption is, even if that means shipping extra agents up to sleepy Alaska:

Although the FBI’s Anchorage office is its smallest nationally, the bureau has flown in necessary manpower from elsewhere. “We had to send significant resources up there,” Kaiser said.

Note: Just something to keep in mind. The FBI’s emphasis on public corruption doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a Justice Department-wide emphasis on prosecuting corruption. In fact, Stone notes some unhappiness among investigators at the slow pace with which the prosecution of the Abramoff case has proceeded. Stone also says that agents have thought certain guilty plea deals cut by prosecutors were “too lenient.”