FBI Agent Accused of Helping the Mafia
L A S V E G A S, June 20 -- An FBI security expert who had access to informant identities and witness lists is accused of selling classified files to the mafia and others involved in criminal investigations, according to a complaint filed against him by the FBI.
James J. Hill, 51, an Air Force veteran and security analyst inthe Las Vegas FBI office, is charged with obstruction of justice,conspiracy and stealing and selling the top-secret FBI information. The six-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in NewYork, says Hill was paid $25,000 for files from November 1999 untillast week. He was arrested Friday in Las Vegas after allegedlyfaxing classified information drawn from computer files to an FBIinformant in New York. A detention hearing was scheduled today in Las Vegas.
Latest in a Series of Problems
The accusations against Hill follow a series of embarrassmentsfor the FBI, including the arrest in February ofcounterintelligence agent Robert Hanssen, who is accused of spyingfor Moscow for 15 years; the announcement last month that more than4,000 FBI documents had been withheld from lawyers for OklahomaCity bomber Timothy McVeigh; and the botched investigation lastyear of former Los Alamos scientist Wen Ho Lee. They also come as a Senate Judiciary committee prepares for ahearing on the agency today and as the White House seeks areplacement for retiring FBI director Louis Freeh. The FBI spent Tuesday assessing the damage that could have beencaused by the potential release of what the complaint refers to as"hundreds of different classified FBI records and documentspertaining to criminal cases and grand jury investigations." According to the complaint, Hill had security clearances andaccess to national security data, confidential informantidentities, witness lists and electronic surveillance information.An FBI official in New York said the case involves criminal filesand not national security secrets.
Accused of Helping the Mob
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