U.S. Attorney Thomas M. DiBiagio's harshly worded letter describing the
Maryland FBI as a "marginal presence at best [and] not sufficiently
engaged" in fighting traditional crime angered agents across the country
Thursday who call the criticism unfounded in light of the new bureau-wide
priority of preventing terrorism.
"Anyone who is complaining that we have not had quite the same commitment
to white-collar crime in the short term is not looking at the long-term
national and international implications of terrorism," said Oregon FBI
agent Nancy L. Savage, president of FBI Agents Association. "I have dealt
with a lot of U.S. attorneys, and I can't imagine questioning this priority."
Writing to FBI Special Agent in Charge Gary M. Bald in a Jan. 9 letter
obtained and published Thursday by The Sun, DiBiagio asserted that the
Maryland FBI "has become distracted and almost useless as they try to
figure out how to address terrorism."
He also said that the bureau is "not sufficiently engaged" in investigating
cases involving violent crime, and corporate and public corruption, adding,
"This is completely unacceptable."
DiBiagio's letter angered officials at FBI headquarters in Washington,
sources there say, and also upset some at the Department of Justice, which
oversees U.S. attorneys. Those officials in Washington apparently felt that
the letter did not reflect the spirit of cooperation within the law
enforcement community that they have been trying to promote.
A federal law enforcement official said that Attorney General John Ashcroft
and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III "have made counterterrorism the No.
1 priority, and any U.S. attorney not heeding that message should take a
second look at who they're serving."
President Bush is likely to reinforce that message Friday when he speaks at
FBI headquarters on what the White House describes as "improving
counterterrorism intelligence."
DiBiagio did not return phone calls Thursday. In a statement released
through the Justice Department's public affairs office in Washington late
Wednesday night, he sought to play down the criticism contained in the letter.
"Counterterrorism is the top priority for both" the U.S. attorney's office
and the FBI, DiBiagio said. "We are committed to continuing our excellent
teamwork."
The FBI has made sweeping changes in its operations under pressure from the
Bush administration to refocus the bureau on averting another attack. In a
briefing for reporters Jan. 30, Mueller described the bureau's top three
priorities as protecting the country from terrorism, espionage and cyber
attacks.
Lists at odds
In his letter, DiBiagio named public corruption, white-collar crime and
major violent crime as his priorities, which came in fourth, seventh and
eighth out of 10 on the FBI's priority list.
The difference in focus underscores the balancing act that bureaus across
the country face as they try to adapt to the new anti-terrorism mandate,
while feeling pressure to continue working the cases that built the FBI
into the nation's foremost law enforcement agency.
Now the bureau has a more daunting challenge -- preventing events that have
yet to happen, often by arrests that might not produce the splashy
headlines and public trials that often serve to convince the public of the
bureau's effectiveness.
Bald, the Baltimore FBI chief, said in an interview Wednesday that a
practical result of the new focus is likely to be a drop in the number of
traditional criminal indictments stemming from local FBI investigations.
"We are still addressing the violent crime matters, but we're not going to
have the same number of people to address violent crime matters that we did
in the past," Bald said.
Across the country, such investigations have fallen increasingly to state
and local law enforcement. Police chiefs have instructed their officers to
take over local bank robberies and nonterror, intelligence-gathering
operations that previously fell to the FBI.
As a result, more of those cases have ended up in the hands of city and
county prosecutors, not federal ones.
Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum,
which studies the FBI and local law enforcement, said U.S. attorneys will
have to let some cases go. "A decision has to be made as to who is doing
what," Wexler said. "We can't afford the duplication. And you can't have it
both ways. You can't say we're going to focus on terrorism but also do all
of these other things, too."
Despite the emphasis that Di Biagio's letter put on violent crime and
corruption cases, the prosecutor has said in the past that he is eager to
fight terrorism. He assigned one of his senior attorneys, Harvey E.
Eisenberg, to terror-related probes full-time since the Sept. 11, 2001,
attacks.
His office has also been successful in taking on white-collar fraud and
public corruption cases.
Federal prosecutors and the FBI in Baltimore gained national attention last
month for the fraud prosecution of former Allfirst Financial Inc. currency
trader John Rusnak. A former Baltimore Development Corp. official, Terry P.
Dean, went on trial this week in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, accused
of soliciting cash from businessmen involved in city revitalization projects.
Split over Staples case
But in at least one well-publicized instance, Baltimore's federal
prosecutor and the local FBI office split over the significance of a public
corruption case.
DiBiagio declined last spring to prosecute the FBI's three-year
investigation into whether city police officers were paid for work they
never did at Staples Inc. or worked at the office-sup ply chain while on
police duty.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-fbi0214,0,6347466.story?coll=bal%2Dlocal%2Dheadlines
