DOJ shadow man strikes at Nashville Scene in DEA scandal story

The Nashville Scene is out with a story today that contains comments that are suspiciously similar to those of the unnamed Justice Department official quoted in the Jan. 13 AP story.

Both the AP and Nashville Scene stories were reported after Narco News published an exclusive story on Jan. 9 based on a leaked memo drafted by Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney Thomas M. Kent. In the memo, Kent alleges that DEA agents in Bogotá are in league with narco-traffickers and are implicated in money laundering and murder. Kent’s memo also alleges that investigations into the alleged corruption carried out by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) and DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) were derailed and whitewashed by officials within those watchdog agencies.

(OIG has oversight over DEA’s OPR -- which is essentially the agency’s Internal Affairs unit -- and the right of first refusal when it comes to investigating corruption cases within DEA.)

From the AP story:

The Justice Department's inspector general's office investigated the allegations in the memo and was unable to substantiate them, according to a Justice Department official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to discuss internal investigations.

From the Nashville Scene’s story:

One insider says that an investigation was done by the Inspector General’s office in 2002, and Kent’s charges all proved false.

“It’s absolute B.S.,” says a Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s been completely investigated, and it’s totally baseless.

“Tom (Kent) is a smart young lawyer, and he was, I believe, taken in by a couple of disgruntled DEA agents who had an axe to grind at the agency, and were part of a rivalry between DEA Florida and DEA Bogotá.”

According to this official, confidential informants are the lifeblood of DEA investigations, and Kent stepped right into a turf war without knowing it. His four-alarm memo was well intended, then, but false, the source says.

According to the Justice Department source, the investigation prompted by Kent’s 2004 memo didn’t lead to any disciplinary measures against agents in Bogotá or Miami, nor did it hurt Kent’s career.

So this mysterious Justice Department source is claiming that the allegations in Kent’s memo are without merit because the OIG investigated them in “2002” and found them to be “totally baseless.”

That’s strange, because Kent’s memo was written in December of 2004, and claims that the very OIG investigation this anonymous DOJ source refers to (the one undertaken supposedly in 2002) was whitewashed. Kent also claims in his memo that the OIG investigator on that case was pulled off the job mysteriously. How do you conduct a legitimate “investigation” without an investigator?

In addition, the unnamed DOJ source tells the Nashville Scene that Kent was duped by a “couple of disgruntled DEA agents who had an axe to grind.” That’s a pretty damning accusation – particularly when it comes from an unnamed source inside DOJ (hence an “insider”).

But Kent anticipates that turning-of-the-tables against the whistleblowers in his memo. After all, he’s a “smart young lawyer.” In fact, Kent offers evidence to show that the agents (and supervisors) reporting the alleged corruption in Bogotá are very credible and were subjected to adverse actions by DEA after reporting the alleged corruption.

From Kent’s memo:

The agents who reported the … allegations did so to correct wrongs committed by other members of DEA and OPR. Their attempts to do so led to retaliation.

… The agent terminated after making the first [corruption] allegation took part in proceedings to obtain reinstatement [and was ultimately reinstated]. During those proceedings, a SAC [a DEA special agent in charge], a witness against the agent, confessed to taking a bribe. In support of his decision to reinstate the agent, the judge found that the DEA attorney and OPR representatives lied during the proceedings.

… The individuals making the allegations are agents and supervisors [more than a couple, therefore]. Some of them have been regarded as being among the best agents in the country. An agent involved in the first allegation took a polygraph test. The polygrapher testified on his behalf before OIG. The polygrapher testified that he not only passed, but exhibited the best chart he has ever seen in his 45 years as a polygrapher, a time period in which he administered some 28,000 such tests.

That’s just a sample of the whistleblowers credentials outlined in the memo drafted by Kent – who is now an assistant U.S. attorney in Nashville.

So, in a nutshell, here’s the score: There were far more than a “couple” whistleblower agents (and some of them were supervisors); the whistleblowers were, in fact, “disciplined” (but eventually prevailed over their accusers) after bringing the corruption allegations forward; and they were far from being “disgruntled,” but rather, “among the best agents in the country.”

But even with all of that background on the whistleblowers outlined in the memo, according to the Scene’s story -- which mentions none of that background, by the way -- we are to believe that Kent was “duped” into accusing DEA agents of narco-trafficking, even conspiracy to commit murder, and then further “duped” into accusing high-level officials in DOJ of participating in a cover-up.

And we are to buy all of this on the word of an unnamed “Justice Department official.”

Now keep your eyes open for this DOJ source. He’s bound to appear again in the media, from the shadows. He may have a different anonymous face each time, but he always spins the same two-faced message – one that is packed with disinformation, yet very quotable.