FBI: 'Argument Can Be Made' Fake AP Story Broke Rules

By RAPHAEL SATTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Apr 28, 2016, 4:48 PM ET

FBI officials say there's no clear evidence the agency violated its own rules when it posed as The Associated Press to unmask a criminal, according to a report obtained through a public records lawsuit.

However, the internal FBI report being made public by the AP and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press says "an argument can be made" that field agents bucked protocol by not informing senior brass in Washington of the 2007 operation.

The sting was aimed at identifying the hoaxer behind a series of bomb threats to Timberline High School in the suburban town of Lacey, Washington.

Agents crafted a fake AP article, digitally booby-trapped it and sent it to the suspect's MySpace account. Pretending to be an AP reporter, they asked him to review the piece before it was published. When the hoaxer opened what he thought was a story about his exploits, the digital trap was sprung, his location was revealed and he was swiftly arrested.

The FBI's use of the AP's name in the operation wasn't widely known until Chris Soghoian, a technologist with the American Civil Liberties Union, discovered a reference to the bogus news article in a cache of previously released FBI documents in October 2014. ...

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