FBI Runs Fake Candidate For Federal Office
by TChris
Does the FBI recognize any limits on its ability to deceive the public? The FBI planted Thomas Esposito as a candidate in a primary for the West Virginia legislature. Catching Esposito on a federal corruption charge in 2003, FBI agents used him to set up a vote-buying sting.
Esposito entered the state House race in January 2004, after losing his bid for a fifth term as Logan mayor. … Investigators believed that "if Esposito were to become a candidate for elective office, a virtual treasure trove of evidence could result," Assistant U.S. Attorney R. Booth Goodwin II said in a federal court filing last month. "The undercover investigation has yielded important results."
Esposito withdrew from the race less than a month before the primary, claiming he needed to tend to an ill family member. Nobody knows whether the alleged vote buyers would have committed their crimes if Esposito, desperate for a break in his own case, hadn’t begged them to take his (that is, the FBI’s) money. In any event, the results obtained — “charges against 16 residents of Logan and neighboring Lincoln counties” — can’t justify the FBI’s tactics.
< Partisanship v. Professionalism in the Justice Dept. | Scapegoating Katrina: Sunday's NY Times > |