By Allan Lengel
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON –– Transparency, transparency, transparency. And yes, disclosure. That’s often the best policy when the federal government takes a case to trial, particularly a big one.
But Bruce Alpert and Jonathan Tilove, reporters at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, have put together an intriguing report on how the FBI failed to disclose early on that an agent who was working undercover in the ex-Rep. William Jefferson case had an affair with a key informant, who wore a wire. Instead, the disclosure was made to the court just days before trial began in June (it became public last week).
The paper quotes various legal experts, including George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, as saying the tardy disclosure involving FBI agent John Guandolo and informant Lori Mody was unacceptable.
“This is just unbelievable, ” Turley told the Picayune. “If the FBI was aware that an agent had an improper relationship with a confidential source, it is information that should have been disclosed to the court.”
The defense asked for a new trial based partly on the affair, but the trial judge rejected the request. In all likelihood, it’s not likely to get much traction in the appeal process considering the minor role the agent played in the case — he pretended to be Mody’s chauffeur — and the affair did not change the facts in the case.
Ticklethewire.com reported last week that the married agent had drawn up, at the urging of his therapist, a list of women he had an affair with to show how it all impacted his marriage. The list included other female FBI agents and an unnamed confidential source who ended up being Lori Mody.
Someone found the list and gave it to his supervisor, which became his undoing. Guandolo, who was considered a good agent, resigned last December. Jefferson was convicted on 11 of 16 public corruption counts.
