Golf, Poker, Gin Probed By Fbi Lab, Cbs Reports Whistle-Blowers Say They Warned Freeh Of Bomb Experts’ On-The-Job Activities

FBI whistleblowers say the bureau’s bomb experts played golf when they should have been at work, stashed gin in the refrigerator and held weekly poker games while on duty, CBS reported Wednesday.

An FBI supervisor said he warned FBI Director Louis Freeh in 1995 that investigators in the crime lab’s explosives unit were “out playing golf instead of doing their jobs” and that “the explosives unit is out of hand.”

The investigators purportedly drank alcohol and played poker once a week in the unit’s library, the network reported, citing summaries of statements given to Justice Department investigators.

A clerk told investigators that bottles of gin were kept in a lab refrigerator. A supervisor said the unit used improper procedures resulting in unfounded conclusions that led to what he called “forensic prostitution.”

Four lab workers, including three senior FBI agents who evaluated evidence in the Oklahoma City bombing case, have been removed from their jobs as a result of a Justice Department investigation into the lab.

One was scientist-agent Frederic Whitehurst, a whistle-blower whose allegations of contamination and pro-prosecution bias in the lab prompted the investigation by the department inspector general.

Whitehurst said all the warnings fell on deaf ears.

“The men that are leading the FBI are no different than any of the rest of us,” Whitehurst told CBS. “Oh my gosh, let me make it to the county line, retire and get that pension. I cannot deal with this.”