An FBI agent who posed as an Associated Press reporter as part of a 2007 investigation into bomb threats made at a Seattle-area high school did not violate the bureau’s undercover policies, the Justice Department’s watchdog determined in a report released Thursday.
The incident has prompted the FBI to update policies on undercover investigations, at least in the interim, according to report by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.
The new interim policy, adopted in June while the watchdog review was underway, still allows for FBI agents to pose as members of the news media in undercover investigations but it requires additional levels of approval from agency leaders.
The review stems from the FBI’s impersonation of a reporter to unearth the identity of a 15-year-old boy who anonymously emailed a series of bomb threats to Timberline High School. The agent posed as a reporter to communicate online with the boy, Charles Jenkins, eventually sending him a fake news story and photographs that when clicked on would activate a computer program allowing agents to determine his location and identity.
The OIG report states that the new policy “prohibits FBI employees from engaging in undercover activities that involve posing as members of the news media, unless those activities are authorized as part of an undercover operation by the [FBI] Deputy Director, after consultation with the Deputy Attorney General.”
The report raises several concerns that reporter impersonation could have on actual media organizations, noting there is a “potential to ’impair newsgathering activities’ by, for example, making it less likely that sources will share information with journalists, fearing they might actually be FBI agents posing as journalists.
Regardless of the policy change, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press remains concerned about the potential consequences.
“Our biggest takeaway from the report is that it justifies the media impersonation that took place in 2007 and concludes that similar impersonation would be approved,” said Katie Townsend, litigation director at the committee. “We find that really troubling. We don’t think there is a place for law enforcement impersonation of members of the news media.”
The OIG report recommends that the FBI permanently adopt the interim policy as well as consider the appropriate level of review required before agents use the name of third-party organizations or businesses without their knowledge or consent.
• Andrea Noble can be reached at anoble@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.