Whitey Bulger/fbi

The murder and racketeering trial against mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger likely will reveal an ugly period for the FBI.

While Bulger was wreaking havoc as the leader of a crime gang in South Boston from the 1970s to the early 1980s, he also was acting as an FBI informant. During that time, at least three agents were helping Bulger, Bloomberg reports.

Bulger is accused of 19 murders and racketeering while leading an organized crime gang in South Boston.

Bulger faces life in prison.

Steve Neavling

Jill Kelley, whose complaints about threatening e-mails led to the resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus, has sued the FBI, saying the agency violated her privacy by divulging her name to the media, the Huffington Post reports.

At the time, federal agents were investigating Petraeus’ extramarital relationship with Paula Broadwell, the author of Petraeus’ biography.

Broadwell told authorities she believed Kelley was competing with her for Petraeus’ affections.

“There was no legally acceptable reason for the government to disclose confidential information about the Kelleys and thereby make them part of the public scandal,” the lawsuit reads.

Steve Neavling

For the first time since 2006, violent crime rose last year, the FBI said Monday.

Violent crime increased 1.2%, or 3.7% in areas with populations between 500,000 and 1 million, NBC News reported.

The biggest spike occurred in the West, where violent crime rose 3.3%. It fell 0.6% in the Northeast.

The data come from a preliminary analysis of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report.

Steve Neavling

A Mexican man who pleaded guilty to killing a Border Patrol agent in 2010 and whose case revealed the botched “Fast and Furious” investigation is to be sentenced Sept. 10, the Associated Press reports.

Manuel Osorio-Arellanes is one of five men accused of killing Agent Brian Terry, but he’s the only one to plead guilty. One other suspect is in custody, while the others remain on the loose.

Two rifles found at the scene belonged originated from the “Fast and Furious” investigation.

Steve Neavling

Some ATF agents involved with a botched gun-buying storefront operation in Milwaukee face disciplinary action, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

The investigation was so bungled that agents last year had their guns stolen and their storefront pillaged.

The Journal Sentinel discovered through a letter sent to Congress that the Justice Department is conducting personnel investigations in connection with “Operation Fearless.”

According to the letter, the FBI backed off helping because of concerns about how the investigation was run.

STORIES OF OTHER INTEREST

• Justice Department Defends AG Holder, Saying He Did Not Commit Perjury 
• Confirmation Hearings Begin Tuesday for Acting ATF Director Todd B. Jones
• Shooting of New York Times Reporter Was Not Act of Terrorism, FBI Concludes
• Russian Officials: FBI Could Have Prevented Boston Marathon Bombing 
• FBI Investigates Possible Kidnapping of Marine in Mexico

James Comey

WASHINGTON — The pending nomination of James Comey to become FBI chief is a poke in the eye with a very sharp stick for the Cheney crowd. Comey, deputy attorney general during the W. years, has drawn criticism from civil libertarians for being part of an administration that waterboarded (though Comey reportedly opposed the justification of this practice), yet

Comey is best known for saying no to a top-secret surveillance program much beloved by Vice President Dick Cheney and his lieutenants. He successfully defied the Bush-Cheney White House on this point in a dramatic encounter in a Washington hospital room, when top Bush advisers tried to bum-rush an ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft into authorizing an extension of the program after Comey, then the acting attorney general, had refused.

But Cheney and his crew have another good reason to be aghast at the thought of Comey leading the FBI: he was the guy who started the independent Plamegate investigation that ended up tainting Cheney and convicting Scooter Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, of serious crimes.

To read more click here.

httpv://youtu.be/7JAcgNTmj7w

Steve Neavling

South Dakota Homeland Security Director James Carpenter plans to retire after serving state government for 35 years, the Associated Press reports.

Director since 2010, Carpenter plans to retire June 8.

His plans? Hunting, fishing and spending time with his family, the AP wrote.

The Department of Public Safety is expected to soon refill the post.