Tag «FBI»

Senior FBI Executives Reportedly Being Polygraphed at a “Rapid Rate”

In an article titled “Unease at F.B.I. Intensifies as Patel Ousts Top Officials,” New York Times national security reporter Adam Goldman notes the increased use of polygraphs under FBI Director Kash Patel’s leadership to discourage employees from speaking with journalists. Excerpt: The F.B.I.’s increasingly pervasive use of the polygraph, or a lie-detector test, has only …

Trump Administration Using Polygraphs to Investigate Unclassified Leaks

Marisa Taylor, Ted Hesson, Alexandra Alper, and Helen Coster report for Reuters in an article titled, “Trump officials are using polygraph tests to flush out even minor leaks.” Their reporting is based on “conversations with nine current and former federal government employees under the current administration who described a concerted effort to expose leaks of …

Jeff Stein on the Trump Administration’s Polygraph Crusade Against Leakers

Veteran journalist Jeff Stein comments on the Trump Administration’s efforts to identify employees who are speaking with journalists without authorization in a paywalled Substack post titled, “Trump & Co’s Polygraph Pandemonium.” Excerpt: Decades ago, a wise and long serving Justice Department inspector general remarked to me that leak investigations were “a fool’s errand.” By that …

Jack Hopkins on Polygraph Screening

Podcaster Jack Hopkins has published on Substack a thoughtful and well-researched essay on polygraph screening titled, “Kash Patel’s Deception: Stop Believing Polygraphs-Science Unmasks the Real Lies.” Excerpt: Hypocrisy isn’t partisan. It’s universal. It’s a human being thing, not political. Wherever you find human beings…you’ll find examples of hypocrisy. And you know what else is universal? The bullshit in …

FBI Begins Polygraph Hunt for Leakers

Ellen Nakashima and Hannah Natanson report for the Washington Post in an article titled, “FBI, national security agencies using polygraphs for ‘leak’ hunts.” Excerpt: National security agencies across the Trump administration are ramping up investigations into alleged leaks to the news media, in some cases using polygraph tests that current and former officials say are …

Espionage Act Conviction of Former FBI Intelligence Analyst Kendra Kingsbury Raises Questions About the FBI’s Personnel Security Polygraph Program

On Wednesday, 21 June 2023, U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough sentenced former FBI intelligence analyst Kendra D. Kingsbury, 50, of Kansas to 46 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. Kingsbury is to begin serving her 46-month sentence no later than 21 July 2023. On 18 May 2021, Kingsbury …

Confession of White Perpetrator in Brittanee Drexel Missing Person Investigation Clears Black Suspect Who Failed FBI Polygraph

On 25 April 2009, 17-year-old Brittanee Drexel of Chili, New York went missing while on holiday in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The investigation of the case dragged on for years and garnered nationwide attention. In 2016, Tequan L. Brown, a jailhouse informant, implicated Timothy Da’Shaun Taylor in Brittanee Drexel’s disappearance, claiming that Drexel “was gang …

Accused Spy Alexander Yuk Ching Ma Evidently Beat the Polygraph to Penetrate the FBI

On Thursday, 13 August 2020, FBI Special Agent Chris Jensen filed under seal a criminal complaint against Alexander Yuk Ching Ma of Honolulu, Hawaii, charging him with “Conspiracy to Gather and Communicate National Defense Information of the United States to a Foreign Nation.” On Monday, 17 August 2020, the complaint was unsealed. In an accompanying …

Ignatz Theodor Griebl: The Nazi Spy Who Escaped Thanks to the Polygraph

The FBI’s first documented use of the polygraph in an espionage investigation came in 1938 in connection with a Nazi German spy ring operating in the United States. The most important suspect interrogated with the polygraph was Dr. Ignatz Theodor Griebl, a medical officer in the U.S. army reserve who is believed to have been …