By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
A supervisory intelligence analyst (SIA) for the FBI has been fired while an internal watchdog was investigating allegations that he had possessed and viewed child pornography, the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) announced Monday.
The OIG forensically examined the SIA’s personal and FBI-issued devices after he had revealed during “routine FBI security inquiry” that he had viewed and downloaded child pornography from the internet several years ago. During the examination, investigators discovered pornographic images, which were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a routine step to determine whether photographs are child pornography.
No evidence of child pornography was found, but based on the analyst’s comments during the security review, the OIG concluded that the SIA had knowingly possessed child pornography.
The FBI fired the analyst while the investigation was ongoing.
The Justice Department declined to prosecute the analyst.
