(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI has at least an estimated 15,000 undercover informants, paying them millions of dollars per year.
But during the ongoing government shutdown, those domestic spies aren’t getting paid, according to a report from the publication NOTUS.
“FBI special agents are required to get a supervisor’s approval to pay sources who are embedded in biker gangs, drug cartels and terrorist groups who then receive money as a condition of their cooperation with ongoing investigations. However, one source said agents are being told ‘don’t even submit it because it’s not going to be approved,’” NOTUS reported on Wednesday.
An unnamed source told NOTUS that the situation is “awful.”
“Sources and local law enforcement partnerships are where the FBI makes such an impact. Both are the eyes and ears. And it’s no secret, locals work with us because we have money to pay sources,” the anonymous source said.
Retired FBI agent also told NOTUS that the bureau keeps a “small cash reserve” for emergency, but that it wouldn’t be nearly enough to sustain a nationwide network of spies.
“A second source familiar with the informant cash crunch pointed out that the freeze on payments is also affecting other key elements of investigations because the bureau is unable to pay translators and other staffers who assist agents as they communicate with sources and examine evidence,” the publication added.
FBI informants can range from criminals who want to avoid charges to citizens looking to make some cash. They also span all socioeconomic categories, from extremely poor to ultrarich—billionaire Peter Thiel, for example, was an informant during the Biden administration.
Being an FBI informant can be a lucrative career. Headline USA revealed in March that one informant made $665,638.63 over roughly the last eight years posing as an Iraqi terrorist.
Headline USA has also reported extensively on the malfeasance within the FBI’s informant system, finding that informants have been involved in some of the most prominent right-wing events in recent history. Indeed, an informant created a neo-Nazi group that committed violence during the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right event, informants were found to have fomented the 2020 plot to capture Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and at least 26 informants stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, without facing punishment.
According to a 2021 article in Gizmodo, the FBI authorized its informants to commit over 9,000 crimes in 2017 and 2018 alone.
Former FBI informant David Gletty told Headline USA he committed many crimes while on missions to take down other criminals.
🚨REVEALED🚨 A former FBI undercover informant, who infiltrated right-wing groups in the mid-2000s, says he broke the law at the direction of his handlers
"I admit I've lied, I’ve cheated, I’ve stole for the FBI. I sold drugs for them; recorded illegally for the FBI…" pic.twitter.com/3GS4n42cBq
— Headline USA (@HeadlineUSA) June 18, 2024
“I admit I’ve lied, I’ve cheated, I’ve stole for the FBI. I sold drugs for them; recorded illegally for the FBI,” he said.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
