House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told reporters on Thursday that the air marshals under investigation for using their government phones to film and share their sex acts with a prostitute had pretended to be pornographers and took out ads on the Backpage.com website to find prostitutes to film.
Chaffetz called a hearing of the committee on Thursday to discuss problems in the Federal Air Marshal Service, which is part of the Transportation Security Administration.
The incident, which allegedly took place while the Chicago-based marshals were on assignment in Europe, was first reported by The Intercept on Wednesday.
Federal Air Marshal Service Director Roderick Allison told the panel the incident was the object of an “ongoing investigation.”
He said the incident was discovered during the investigation of a disability claim in June, which led to the uncovering of pornographic materials on government-issued phones.
By mid-July, two marshals had been placed on indefinite suspension and one resigned, Allison said. He informed the committee of the investigation within the last week.
The disability claim was referred to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, Allison said.
Asked what he wanted to happen to the marshals involved in the incident, Allison said he wanted them fired, adding, “It would be nice if they were prosecuted.”
When pressed, Allison acknowledged that the incident involving the Chicago air marshals probably happened more than once. And, he said, “They must have thought it was okay and must have thought they weren’t going to get caught.”
Chaffetz told The Intercept that there are now at least 12 air marshals under investigation or accused of involvement in various types of misconduct.
Caption: Rep. Jason Chaffetz
People of all backgrounds make their way into “policing”, but that does not make it alright to ignore this issue. This is not how I want my tax dollars spent – on men or women who refuse to do their jobs with ethics and morals, and I’d bet that millions of Americans feel as I do about that.
If I want cheap, vacuous sex scandal mongering I have CNN or the New York Times. The Intercept I come to for something different and clickbait sexual stuffiness aint it.
I really. Dont. Care. About this issue and I am disappointed that the Intercept is descrnding to this level. Whats next, “Cop Stares At Cleavage During Traffic Stop”? I cant wait.
If you have sex with a prostitute and then refuse to pay her, is that rape or shoplifting?
Theft of services?
There’s Crime and then there’s crime. The US has an extensive, comprehensive court system but it’s reserved for the middle (what’s left) and lower classes.
The other route is the self policing, Internal Investigation. If you’re a priest you get the “Internal Investigation” and get relocated. Likewise if you’re a cop you get suspension with pay and after everything blows over you’re back on duty. If you’re a Banker the FDIC investigates and drops the charges from lack of evidence. If you’re Stock Broker you pay a SEC fine with no admission of guilt. If you close your eyes to a bad iginition or tainted food the Corporation gets a minor fine and the guilty go back to their sloppy work. If you’re an Air Marshall you’re the object of an Internal Investigation. Heaven Help you if you’re an average citizen – you aren’t eligible for the “in house” treatment. Why aren’t we using the public court system for all Crime – the openess of evidence, juries, and the press would do wonders for this crippled, two-tier system.
Rather tame, given that 55 air marshals were fired by 2008, with a number of them convicted of drug smuggling, human trafficking, rape, and at least one murder!
Still, the record for federal government workers (to those of us who have been reading the IG reports on every government agency these past 15 to 20 years) is enough to make the average American citizen barf!
Time for a real investigation of 9/11, perhaps?
shouldn’t drug lords be paying for these festivities
I guess this update answers all those who had “what’s illegal about people having sex” comments from Wednesday.
No it doesn’t. It only raises more questions.
What is “indefinite suspicion”? I didn’t even know that was a thing.
I think it’s supposed to be “indefinite suspension.”
But Indefinite Suspicion (for the rest of us) is already a thing.
The initiative of these pornographers is certainly impressive, although perhaps not altogether admirable.
It seems they either initiated, or perhaps only indirectly benefited from, a traumatic event in order to receive free airline tickets to all of the world’s most popular porn filming destinations. In addition, they installed new scanners at airports all over the country, which would film passengers with rays that penetrated through their clothing. Then they took security films as they fondled and groped the those passengers, often in private booths with hidden cameras. That was all fine, since it was not only government sanctioned but mandated. But unfortunately, none of this was good enough for them, and they had to go and hire prostitutes. The general public is justified in being a bit jealous – weren’t the scenes with airline passengers good enough? The TSA had the largest cast of extras ever created for a porn film and have now basically told the travelling public they didn’t make the cut. So I think there ‘s going to be a backlash against these agents, as the general citizenry, who believed they were the stars of the show, vent their anger at this unwarranted snub.
And who could forget this classic? “Man with ‘world’s biggest pen!s’ stopped at SFO security.”
(You can google it, after changing the exclamation point. Sfgate website. I’d include the hyperlink but the TI comments orc will probably delete the post, since it has a bad word in it.)