The FBI’s Boston bureau, already embarrassed by its ties with the legendary and recently captured mobster James “Whitey” Bulger, may be in line for still more embarrassment.
The Justice Department is investigating the Boston FBI’s relationship with reputed East Boston mobster Mark Rossetti, who worked as a paid informant for decades, Boston’s Channel WCVB reported on Tuesday.
Last week team of six investigators began to look at allegations from Massachusetts law enforcement officials that the FBI lied about its use of Rossetti, 54, as an informant, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) said, according to WCVB. The station said an FBI spokesman, Paul Bresson, confirmed the probe in a statement: “Regarding the Rossetti matter, an inspection team from FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., is currently reviewing.’’
That, no doubt, is pleasing to Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, who recently expressed concerns about the FBI’s possible links to Rossetti, as Main Justice reported.
Lynch, who has filed legislation that would give Congress control over the FBI informant program, said it appeared that Rossetti was “running a criminal enterprise” while earning hundreds of dollars a month in taxpayers’ money (plus a free cell phone) while acting as an informant, WCVB reported.
If nothing else, Rossetti seems to have been a hard worker. “He was a top echelon informant,’’ defense attorney Steve Boozang said as he argued during a court hearing that wiretaps used to snare Rossetti and his accused underlings should be thrown out, according to WCVB. “You don’t start off as a top echelon informant. You have to rat yourself up the ladder.”
Rat yourself up the ladder? All right, in fairness it should be noted that investigators don’t get inside information on crime without talking to some criminals. It’s too soon to guess where all this will lead, but Allan Lengel, who called attention to the Boston TV report on his Tickle the Wire Blog, dared a prediction: “This can’t be good publicity for the FBI.”
