FBI Director James Comey said he’s unwilling to pledge an end to agents posing as reporters, but emphasized that such a tactic should be rare and “done carefully with significant supervision, if it’s going to be done,” the Seattle Times reports.
The comments at a round-table discussion with reporters came after recent revelations that an FBI agent posed as an Associated Press reporter in 2007 to investigate high school bomb threats.
The AP asked that the tactic stop.
“I’m not willing to say never,” Comey responded. “Just as I wouldn’t say that we would never pose as an educator or a doctor or, I don’t know, a rocket scientist.”
The AP argues that posing as a reporter degrades a news agency’s “legacy of objectivity, truth, accuracy and integrity.”
Comey said that he’s not familiar with any other instances in which agents posed as reporters.
“I think it’s something that ought to be done carefully with significant supervision if it’s going to be done,” he said. “But I’m not in a position to say never.”
