FBI: Michael Grimm Not Welcome In Our Offices
Congressman Michael Grimm has been barred from visiting the FBI’s New York field offices since he left the agency eight years ago, calling into question if the embattled representative left on good terms as he frequently claims.
The Grimm prohibition was discovered by DNAinfo, which reports:
Federal security personnel at the FBI’s headquarters in Lower Manhattan and a satellite office in Kew Gardens, Queens, posted Grimm’s photo inside their glass-enclosed stations in the event he showed up, sources said.
They were under orders to stop him and to immediately notify higher authorities on what further action to take, according to the sources.
“He is not permitted in our space,” one source told “On The Inside.”
“He is not welcome,” a former top FBI official said.
Grimm was hit with a 20-count indictment last Monday, alleging tax fraud and illegal hiring practices at an Upper East Side eatery he ran after his stint in the FBI, and before he ran for Congress. The U.S. Attorney’s office has suggested they’re also looking into potential campaign fundraising abuses.
The congressman often touts his military service record and his career at the FBI as qualifications on the campaign trail. In the law enforcement agency, he served as an undercover operative who penetrated the Gambino crime family, and also helped bring down a ring of white-collar criminals in 2003.
But his career was cut short in 2006, when he unexpectedly resigned. He has always said that he left on good terms to start a family.
The new revelations discovered by DNAinfo cast doubt onto those claims, though, with sources telling the outlet that Grimm was being investigated by the agency’s internal monitors for breach of protocol.
They report:
Sources said Grimm’s FBI identification picture was posted shortly after he resigned from the bureau in 2006 and it now hangs with about two dozen other ex-agents and federal employees.
“They are all employees who were fired, or they were under circumstances where they were forced out or felt they should leave, and all are no longer welcome back,” the former FBI official explained.
… Sources said Grimm, 44, was under internal scrutiny before he quit over allegations that he told a woman he met during a probe that he worked undercover — a violation of FBI protocol.
The FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility was also questioning so-called “voucher” expenses he submitted in connection with his undercover roles.
The sources believe the pressure of the inquiry played a role in his decision to exit the FBI — an agency he often professed to love, his colleagues noted — without getting a pension because he didn’t serve 20 years.
A spokesperson for Grimm told DNAinfo that the congressman was “unaware” that he was not permitted in FBI offices, and had no idea why. The spokesperson also provided a 2012 letter on FBI letterhead stating that the former agent “resigned his post in good standing with the FBI.”