When then-U.S. Attorney Wayne A. Budd was investigating mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, he said the FBI “stonewalled” him in the 1990s when he asked whether Bulger was an informant, MassLive.com reports.
The assertion came during a confirmation hearing for Attorney Robert Ullmann, who is seeking appointment on a seat on the Massachusetts Supreme Court.
“I think if you talk to anybody, I was one of the people who was trying to do the right thing,” Ullmann told MassLive. “It is a shocking story. You can say that we all should have realized the depth of the protection and the depth of the wrongdoing sooner than we did.”
Budd said the FBI wouldn’t tell him whether Bulger was an informant.
“We sat with the FBI. I said, ‘Listen, I need to know whether or not this guy is one of your people,’” Budd said. “I was told there was not a need for my office to know. Hence, I was never given that information.”
