Feds: Ex-CIA Official Pushed Agency to Hire Mistress
Foggo told CIA he had a "special interest" in his alleged mistress' hiring.
May 21, 2008— -- A former top CIA official pressured agency employees into hiring his alleged mistress as an in-house attorney, according to a new federal indictment.
Kyle "Dusty" Foggo resigned his position as the CIA's executive director in 2006, following the resignation of former CIA Director Porter Goss, who had installed him in the senior post. Days later, agents from the FBI, IRS, Pentagon and the CIA's inspector general's office raided Foggo's home and office.
Last year federal prosecutors in San Diego charged Foggo with multiple counts of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, in connection with an alleged scheme to steer classified contracts worth millions to companies controlled by his lifelong friend, Brent Wilkes.
Foggo's prosecution was moved from California to Virginia last year, where prosecutors presented evidence against Foggo to a new grand jury. The panel handed down a 30-count indictment Tuesday containing most of the old charges, and a number new allegations.
According to the new indictment, in 2005 Foggo, who is married, pushed the CIA's Office of General Counsel to hire his alleged mistress, a woman identified in the document as "E.R."
Without disclosing his alleged affair with the woman, Foggo told CIA employees she was vital to the CIA's mission at an overseas location he once ran, and that she was one of his "five personal heroes," according to the indictment.
When the office balked at hiring her, Foggo told an official from the office he had a "special interest" in E.R.'s hiring, the indictment said.
"When the ExDir [Executive Director] has a special interest, you better take notice," Foggo allegedly warned the official. According to the indictment, he also asked for a memo outlining the reasons why his alleged mistress was rejected.
Hiring the woman, Foggo told the general counsel's office, would allow him "to close out another debt of honor with the uniformed service members" who had assisted the CIA, the indictment said.
A few weeks later, according to the indictment, the CIA sent "E.R." a conditional offer of employment as a CIA attorney; Foggo pushed to expedite her security clearance and arrange her start date, July 10, 2005, the document said.
The indictment also suggests that shortly after E.R. began work at the CIA, Foggo inserted himself to have her boss reassigned, as a favor to her.
One month after she began, Foggo's alleged mistress e-mailed him to say she believed her immediate supervisor was "on her way out" ("she's packing boxes and her door is closed," she allegedly noted), the indictment noted.
According to the document, Foggo responded, "I guess my note [requesting E.R.'s supervisor be reassigned] got some attention -- you can thank me later (smile)."
Two of Foggo's alleged statements concerning his alleged mistress became grounds for charges of making false statements which were added to the new indictment.
"This is the government's third try at framing charges against Mr. Foggo," said Foggo's lawyer, Mark J. MacDougall. "But adding salacious allegations won't change facts. Mr. Foggo never violated the law and served our nation with distinction for more than a quarter of a century."
A hearing on the new indictment is scheduled for Thursday.