FBI Special Agent Clearance Unit

Fabricating malicious, flimsy excuses not to hire qualified candidates.

May 20, 2025

I haven't spoken about this in years because the experience was long ago and bringing it up again always rekindles the negative feelings from the malicious, vindictive things that happened to me when I tried to join the FBI. This page arises out of a crazy attorney in my Hall of Shame who falsely claimed online and in court papers that I was fired by the FBI for using illegal drugs. That is not true, as I never worked for the FBI nor have I been a user of illegal drugs. Read my letter to the new Director summarizing what happened when several dishonest and unethical FBI employees manufactured a basis to not hire me for the Special Agent position in 2009. Director Patel has promised a lot of things, including transparency and accountability, and this stems from those promises. Winners don't use drugs, and I'm setting the record straight due to the above-mentioned crazy attorney's defamatory claims. In addition, the following FBI personnel do not belong in the FBI due to their manipulative, toxic behavior and other reasons:

  1. Special Agent Grahm L. Coder (still with the FBI) - fabricated false statements attributed to me that I did not make, such as that I "confirmed" that I was "involved" in a buy/sell "transaction" of illegal drugs. Had I known then what I know now, I would have emailed him after our conversation to confirm what I actually said so that there would be a paper trail. I didn't think I had to do that with a Special Agent in the FBI.
  2. Supervisory Personnel Security Specialist Valrie R. Kosh - recommended non-selection based on the false statements attributed to me.
  3. Personnel Security Specialist Abby M. Hale - emailed the FBI Headquarters attorney seeking to non-select me. Later presented at the appeal hearing that I was never told about.
  4. Attorney Edward M. Broussard (still with the FBI) - attorney in the FBI who trashed me in his reply to Ms. Hale, stating that I lacked the judgment to be a Special Agent and should be non-selected.
  5. Unit Chief Montchell Brice - made the final non-selection decision and refused to comply with his own directive to inform me of the appeal process, even though there was an appeal process-- later writing to me that I had exhausted my administrative remedies. That's because the appeal hearing was held without notice or any material from me, because of his actions.

The Special Agent Applicant Unit had already approved my application despite the underlying non-incident, and I passed my polygraph examination with a directive from a Supervisory Special Agent to continue my application. The "incident" was already exhaustively examined at the polygraph, which states in the report that I was merely "present when two friends exchanged less than $100 in marijuana." In no universe is that disqualifying, even under the 2009-era policy, especially when the rest of the application has no issues. That is why I was so upset about this outcome-- they sank me on purpose because otherwise, they would have had to hire me due to the way the FBI hires applicants-- normally based on merit with a bunch of tests and interviews that I aced. This is not about bitterness, as I am content with being a trial attorney and law firm owner. This is about SACU manipulating the process to turn away someone highly qualified for ridiculous and untrue reasons that should never happen, and Director Patel is in a position to correct the toxic behavior in the Special Agent Clearance Unit so that less applicants experience this same thing and more applicants who would have been hired are allowed to serve their country. More to follow, but I hope that this helps future applicants so they are aware of this unexpected bureaucratic B.S. and maybe are able to prevent the same thing happening to them.

For starters, here is my petition for mandamus against the FBI in 2012, which lays out what happened in more detail, before I learned that there had been an internal appeal hearing. Looking back, it's really well-written. It was dismissed because the FBI produced an appeal hearing sheet showing that they had convened their review board, which I was never told about, nor informed of the results. So the judge found that they had met their minimal burden. I do need to get the hard drive out that has all the underlying documents, which may take some time-- it's in storage. This may well end up being the only publicly available, unredacted applicant case file in FBI history, and you can judge for yourself. Meanwhile, in the 2010-2011 time frame, I had an anonymous, comprehensive website devoted to documenting my entire FBI application process, and I'm hereby unmasking myself as the Full Spectrum Litigator and providing my redacted documents. This should show up in an iframe sized to fit in a normal desktop screen for your convenience, or browse the old site directly. The amended appeal from 2011 is the best source of information and documents that show what happened.

Back to Hall of Shame.