Full Spectrum Litigator

The FBI manuals set standards for every aspect of a Special Agent's job and every aspect of the application process. The two key manuals are the Manual of Investigative Operations and Guidelines (MIOG) and the Manual of Administrative Operations and Procedures (MAOP). Both manuals are well over 1,000 pages long.

MIOG contains standards for investigating every type of case over which the FBI has jurisdiction, including applicant investigations. Section 67--Bureau Applicant Matters describes the applicant investigation in great detail.

MAOP controls the administrative side of FBI operations. None of it is relevant to appealing a suitability determination, but some of it was interesting.

MIOG section 67, current version.

Section 67--Bureau Applicant Matters, annotated. 1998 version. Describes applicant investigation, sets out the drug policy, provides for ranking of applicants based on merit, and has many other interesting provisions. I will put up selected other portions of the MIOG as well as the full MIOG at some point. Most of the material is unrelated to applicant investigations, but some other sections (e.g., Section 263--Office of Professional Responsibility matters) are relevant.

This manual contains some interesting information about duties of a Special Agent, composition of investigative reports, and other details. None of the manual is relevant to appealing a suitability determination, and so it's a low priority for putting up here.

This briefing booklet provides an introduction to the Law Enforcement Pre-Employment Test (LEPET) taught at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute. The FBI Pre-Employment polygraph is a variant on the DOD LEPET, as discussed in more detail in the section at left. There is much interesting material in this manual, but nothing that would unfairly assist an applicant with the FBI polygraph. What it does is clear up a lot of the bullshit mystique assigned to the pre-employment polygraph by moderators on various internet message boards. Actually penetrating the FBI with an enemy agent would involve quite a bit more than reading this introductory manual, which is not even marked "sensitive," much less "classified." You are not doing anything wrong by reading publicly available information.

This policy "guidance" issued by ODNI shows that the Scattered Castles interagency database is a repository for background investigations and polygraph results. I thought this would be important in my libel case because the defamatory matter generated by the defendants should have gone into this system. However, ODNI advised that there was no match when they searched.

The Bell Report was an extensive review of the Office of Professional Responsibility that exposed numerous challenges to the proper administration of discipline within the FBI. I sent my complaint of January 2010 to OPR because both the MIOG and the Bell Report showed that OPR was the appropriate recipient. Apparently, after the Bell report came out, the Inspection Division was assigned the task of complaint intake. This study contains a lot of information, particularly starting at page 15--describing the then-current procedure for handling complaints. My favorite part is the description of "zero" files, which both field offices and OPR-HQ utilize. The Bell Report notes that zero files could be used as a dumping ground for allegations that otherwise have merit. That sounds like it could have happened to my complaint. Why else would I hear nothing in response only to find out seven months later that OPR doesn't handle complaint intake?

These two official memoranda instruct FBI human resources officers to apply the Merit System, avoid Prohibited Personnel Practices, and provide a reasonable application process. The memoranda do not, however, contain any actual promises or enforcement procedures, or any binding orders. In other words, they appear to be CYA letters but that's open for debate. I have no doubt that the FBI Human Resources Division applies the Merit System--they aren't the problem. The problem is pretextual disqualification of otherwise qualified applicants by the Security Division based on shaded versions of the facts that cause applicants to compete against each other in a dimension of perceived moral character, rather than on objectively tested criteria and other authorized dimensions of competitiveness. In addition to violating the FBI's own manual, this is illegal--even in the excepted service.

Memo regarding the Merit System
The DOJ Pledge to Applicants

I reverse-engineered the FBI FD-302. Use this form to record your conversations with SACU Special Agents, and send it by Express Mail to SACU so that they have your version of the conversation. I've included a sample FD-302 that I wrote using made up facts so you can note the style used by the FBI. The font they use appears to be Courier or Courier New, but I use Courier Final Draft.

Blank FD-302
Sample FD-302