Lies and the FBIs

Of course, you know it's illegal to lie to an F.B.I. agent, even if you're not under oath. But, it's apparently just fine if the F.B.I. lies to the public. TPM Muckraker has the story:

Officials lied to reporters when they said the FBI suspected a nonprofit group held for months inappropriate emails between Mark Foley and a former teenage page, before turning them over to investigators, according to a new report.

At the height of the Foley scandal this summer, quotes from anonymous "law enforcement" officials surfaced in news accounts alleging that Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had first received copies of the infamous Foley emails in April 2006, but did not turn them over to the FBI until July.

But a new report from the Justice Department's internal watchdog confirms that was not the case. In fact, "the e-mails were provided to CREW in July 2006, not April, and CREW sent them to the FBI within days of receiving them," the office of Justice Inspector General Glenn A. Fine reported.

Unfortunately, "we do not know who may have supplied the media with this inaccurate information," Fine's report stated. (You can find the full report here.)