Criminal Investigation of FBI Promises
While the Senate subcommittee investigation continued, other developments led to the reinstatement of the prosecutorial effort.
Realizing that there was public pressure to resume prosecution despite his role as an FBI informant, Presser claimed that he had been given permission to engage in payroll padding by his FBI contacts. DOJ and FBI rules condone the commission of certain crimes so long as the crimes meet certain guidelines, are used solely to protect sources, and permission is secured in advance from top-level DOJ officials. Presser's lawyers argued that the permission given to him by FBI agents should bar any prosecution. Presser's attorneys also said that Presser had requested FBI permission several times to dismiss the "ghost employees" and that FBI agents had turned his requests down.
Presser's claims were undercut when two criminal investigations into FBI behavior began in August 1985.
In August 1985, the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility began an investigation into whether the three FBI agents handling Presser had told their FBI and DOJ supervisors the truth about their actions and promises. Senior DOJ officials told investigators that the agents did not reveal that they had authorized criminal activity. Investigators also claimed that senior DOJ officials failed to pass on information about Presser's role to the Attorney General's office or to DOL (a charge FBI Director Webster denied).
At the same time, a federal grand jury in Cleveland began a criminal investigation into DOJ's handling of Presser. Presser's uncle, who was also a Teamster official, had been convicted of embezzlement. After just four months, the grand jury concluded that FBI and DOJ officials had illegally withheld information about Presser's role from the defense. The grand jury also found evidence that FBI agents had failed to tell superiors that they had authorized Presser to engage in the payroll-padding scheme at Local 507.
A second federal grand jury investigation opened in Washington, D.C., in April 1986. The second investigation built on the information uncovered by the Cleveland grand jury, and probed whether the three FBI agents handling Presser made false statements to supervisors about their relationship with Presser.
In May 1986, the Department of Justice began a criminal prosecution against one of the FBI agents who had overseen Presser. The agent's signed affidavit that supported Presser's claim that the FBI had sanctioned the "ghost employee" payroll-padding scheme were found to be false. Prosecutors also found that FBI agents continued to meet with Presser for months even though FBI Director Webster had ordered them to stop. The investigation found that Presser may also have informed the FBI that he intended to appoint mob figures as his top union lieutenants, but that this information was never passed on to senior-level administrators. Consequently, the Cleveland grand jury widened its probe to investigate Presser and other officials of Local 507.
Read more about this topic: Jackie Presser Indictment Scandal
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—Clifford Irving (b. 1930)
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—Ernest Lehman (b.1920)
“A person must have a good memory to keep the promises he has made. A person must have a strong imagination to be able to have pity. So closely is morality tied to the quality of the intellect.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)