Law enforcement officials executed search warrants Friday on the house and office of CIA’s outgoing executive director as part of an investigation into corruption involving agency contracts, the FBI said.
The CIA’s third-ranking official, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, has been under investigation by the FBI, IRS, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the CIA’s inspector general and the U.S. attorney’s office in San Diego, said FBI spokeswoman April Langwell in San Diego.
Under a sealed warrant, officials searched Foggo’s Virginia home and his office at the CIA’s Langley, Va., campus, Langwell said. She could provide no other details.
Foggo was not in his office or at home during the raid, NBC News’ Robert Windrem reported.
The FBI and other agencies have been investigating whether Foggo improperly intervened in the award of contracts to a San Diego businessman and personal friend, Brent Wilkes, who has been implicated in a congressional bribery scandal.
CIA Director Porter Goss, who announced his retirement this week, didn’t know about the raid until minutes before it happened, an official told NBC’s Windrem. Goss sent an e-mail to CIA staff afterward that ended: “These developments are as stunning and as disappointing to me as they are to you,” NBC reported.
In a statement, CIA spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise Dyck also confirmed the searches of his home and office on Friday morning.
“The agency is cooperating fully with the Department of Justice and the FBI,” she said. “Agency leaders outside of the (inspector general’s office) were informed just prior to the execution of the search warrants, in keeping with standard law enforcement procedures.”
Former and current officials called the raid “unprecedented,” according to NBC. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
Second retirement in the CIA
This week, Foggo announced his retirement from the agency after 25 years serving around the world. His decision came three days after Goss announced he would be stepping down from the agency.
Dyck said the Foggo investigation has “absolutely nothing, zero” to do with Goss’ resignation.
In a statement on Foggo’s behalf, the CIA said he denied any improprieties. “Mr. Foggo maintains that government contracts for which he was responsible were properly awarded and administered,” the agency said last week.
Wilkes has been described in court papers as an unindicted co-conspirator in a plot to bribe then-Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, a California Republican who is now serving time in a federal prison for taking $2.4 million from government contractors.
FBI agents also have been investigating whether Wilkes provided Cunningham with prostitutes, limousines and hotel suites.
Foggo has acknowledged participating in the poker parties at the hotel rooms, but he has said there was nothing untoward about that. “If he attended occasional card games with friends over the years, Mr. Foggo insists they were that and nothing more,” the CIA statement said.
Oversaw day-to-day operations
Foggo’s associates have said he received the Intelligence Commendation Medal for supporting the war on terror in 2002. Before becoming the agency’s No. 3 leader in 2004, he was the chief of base at a classified facility that supports the war on terror.
As executive director, Foggo had the powerful position of overseeing the day-to-day operations of the CIA.
One FBI agent told reporters from Copley News Service, who were at Foggo’s residence, that Foggo was not at home in his quiet suburban neighborhood near CIA headquarters and had not been detained. The agents refused to answer other questions about the raid.
A neighbor told Copley that the agents arrived about 8 a.m. ET. A white Chevrolet van was backed up to the carport of the split-level brick home and, at one point, a man wearing latex gloves emerged from the house and went around back.