Dear dimas, With respect to your post, (very good) the information provided is not exactly accurate. Depending on the specific nature and circumstances of the offense, some "federally sealed" convictions cannot be found period... regardless of search method, i. e., NAC/LAC/NCIC, etc. Example; most any/all Federal Witness Protection convictions are sealed and cannot be found by DISCO, DSS, OPM, FBI, etc. This is mostly due to protecting certain specifics and details contained within the report of a conviction that could possibly identify a former federal informant, witness, or possibly family members, locations, etc. These types of "sealed" convictions can only be identified via a "higher authority" court order. Even the FBI cannot access these sealed cases, due to the risk of a rouge/corrupt FBI SA that may be willing to compromise or sell the sealed information to unethical "interested" parties. Only certain individuals (special agents) within the US Marshals Service work with and have access to high level federal sealed cases, and even then the actual agents are not “openly” acknowledged among their own co-workers within the US Marshals Service. I used to work with a "special division" of the US Marshals Service (Con Air Unit) in which we were used to strictly relocate federal witnesses around the US. Of course; I no longer work with this agency, nor do I possess any knowledge of anyone that does. I do however currently work for the State Dept; on some occasion(s), I am loaned out to the DOJ, Department of Justice and DoD, Department of Defense. Final note; I was once the immediate supervisor of a federal agency employee that was once involved in a federal witness case. The individual/former employee had years before plead guilty to having knowledge of certain criminal activity, and failing to report it. Which could have possibly prevented additional criminal acts from being committed. His case and records were federally sealed by the court, and could not be found during his background investigation for his TS security clearance. The individual felt compelled to inform me of this issue being in his past history since I was his immediate supervisor. (he possibly may have feared that I may discover the info anyway) He listed the conviction on his SF86, dates, location, etc., and the FBI investigator could not find any trace of the conviction. My point being; if he had not listed the sealed conviction in his SF86, I, nor, anyone else would ever have known… However, the individual was completely honest and forthright with the investigators, and they did not deem him as a security risk. The FBI and DSS both conducted individual and independent background investigations due to the position he was being hired into worked with multiple federal agencies, the DoD, DOE and DOJ. The issue was thoroughly investigated, adjudicated, and he was cleared for full TS with Special Access. Please excuse my lengthy reply; however, I felt obligated and compelled to clarify that all "federal sealed convictions" cannot necessarily be found during a FBI/DSS/DISCO/OPM security clearance background investigation. Respectfully, x
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