By Steve Neavling

Former pot smokers are now eligible to become FBI agents – as long as they haven’t used cannabis more than 24 times as an adult. 

That’s according to a recently revised policy for would-be agents, first reported by Marijuana Moment.

The FBI began taking a more tolerant approach to marijuana use among would-be agents earlier this year. Under a policy revised in June, job applicants were qualified to become agents if they haven’t consumed cannabis for at least one year. 

The bureau revised the policy again in the past month, this time limiting eligibility to applicants who have not used cannabis more than 24 times. 

It’s one clear why the bureau draws the line at two dozen. 

The updated policy says that candidates who “have used marijuana or any of its various forms (e.g., cannabis, hashish (hash), hash oil, or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), synthetic or natural), in any location (domestic or foreign) regardless of the legality in that location of use, more than twenty-four (24) times after turning 18 years old is a disqualifier for FBI employment.”

In 2014, then-FBI Director James Comey mentioned a less restrictive employment policy for former marijuana users.  

“I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Comey said at the time.

By Steve Neavling

A retired FBI agent is running a spirited campaign to unseat U.S. Rep. John Joyce in the 13th Congressional District in Pennsylvania. 

Todd Rowley, 17-year veteran of the FBI, is running as a Democrat in a heavily Republican district. 

“I’m running against Donald Trump,” Rowley told TribLive.com. “John Joyce has the highest voting ratio with Trump in Pennsylvania. He has fully backed his wagon to Donald Trump.”

Joyce has no problem with that characterization. 

“President Trump represents and supports the freedoms we embrace,” Joyce said.

After retiring from the FBI, Rowley, 56, is now a ranger at Linn Run State Park. He’s never run for political office and acknowledges he’s an underdog. Much of his campaign is focused on the coronavirus pandemic, which he said Joyce has mishandled.

“John Joyce was silent. He’s a medical physician, and for him to be silent for these eight to nine months, it’s a shame. It’s a clear squandering of leadership,” Rowley said.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Federal authorities are looking for three men who robbed an FBI agent at gunpoint in an attempted carjacking in Puerto Rico.

The FBI is offering a $25,000 reward for information about the three suspects who were driving a black Mercedes Benz, the Associated Press reports.

The suspects stole the agent’s wallet, FBI credentials and official firearm Saturday night in the Ocean Park neighborhood in the capital of San Juan.

While the number of reported carjackings have increased in Puerto Rico this year, crimes are rare in Ocean Park.

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

Ralph Himmelsbach, the lead FBI agent in the mysterious 1971 skyjacker case of D.B. Cooper, has died.

The retired agent died Tuesday in Woodburn, Oregon, at the age of 94, The Oregonian reports.

Himmelsbach was best known for the decade he spent investigating the hijacking of Northwest Orient Flight 305. Cooper boarded the plane in Portland, Ore. He claimed to have a bomb and had the plane fly to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where he got the ransom money. He subsequently parachuted from the plane and was never found.

After his retirement, Himmelsbach wrote the book “Norjak: The Investigation of D.B. Cooper” and “The Secrets of the FBI.”

“Special Agent Himmelsbach retired from the FBI almost 40 years ago, but he never left the FBI family,” Renn Cannon, special agent in charge of the FBI in Oregon, said. “Through the later years of his long career and into retirement, he was seen as an expert on the mysteries of the D.B. Cooper disappearance. He will be missed by all who had the chance to come to know him.”

Born on Sept. 28, 1985, in Oakland, Calif., Himmelsbach graduated from the University of Oregon and later served as a pilot in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Himmelsbach joined the FBI in 1951 and became a reputable, dogged investigator.

Later in his life, Himmelsbach said D.B. Cooper likely did during his jump from the plane.

FBI Agents Say Hijacker D.B. Cooper Probably Died During His Jump

By Steve Neavling

ticklethewire.com

An FBI agent is accused of chasing a teenager inside his home in California and pointing a gun at him over a prank – and the agent has yet to face trial nearly two years later.

“If this had happened to me, this thing would have been over and two months later, I’d be in prison,” father Chris Perry told CBS13. “I have more flashbacks and whacked out visions of it all the time.”

The horrifying incident happened in December 2017, when the boy was celebrating his 14th birthday. He and a friend decided to knock over an inflatable snowman on the FBI’s agent yard in Roseville.

The FBI agent, Michael Corrigan, is accused of chasing the teen to his home and then pointing a gun at him.

“I fly out of bed and I turn the corner and there’s a dude in my house, two feet inside my house pointing a gun at my son and his friend, and I just flipped and tackled him out the door. It was just panic,” Perry said.

Last year, the agent was charged with a felony. But after all this time, the case has still not gone to trial.

“It’s been two years. I just want some justice with it,” Perry said.

The FBI declined to comment on the case and whether the agent has been disciplined.

Defense attorney Bill Portonova responded in a written statement: “Special agent Michael Corrigan is an honorable family man with an exemplary career in law enforcement and he has full faith that these unfortunate proceedings will achieve a just end.”

On Friday, Corrigan was in court for a status conference, but no date has been scheduled yet for a trial.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

Mark Morgan, a former FBI Agent, border hardliner and veteran of the Obama administration, has been chosen by President Trump to lead Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“I am pleased to inform all of those that believe in a strong, fair and sound Immigration Policy that Mark Morgan will be joining the Trump Administration as the head of our hard working men and women of ICE,” Trump tweeted. “Mark is a true believer and American Patriot. He will do a great job!”

Morgan will replace former acting ICE Director Ronald Vitiello, who resigned in April
.
During the final days of the Obama administration, Morgan became the first outsider to serve as chief of the Border Patrol. After clashing with a union for Border Patrol agents, Morgan left his position the same month Trump became president in January 2017.

Morgan also served two decades as an FBI agent.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

Federal prosecutors are pushing for a four-year prison sentence for the former FBI agent who acknowledged he disclosed classified terrorist-profiling guidelines to the media.

But former agent Terry Albury’s attorney argues he should not be sentenced to prison during a hearing later this month, Politico reports.

In April, the 16-year FBI veteran pleaded guilty to felony charges of illegal transmission of national security information and illegal retention of the data.

Albury admitted he leaked the bureau’s procedures for handling sources in terrorism investigations, but he said he did it out of concern about the FBI’s interactions with minority communities.

By Steve Neavling
Ticklethewire.com

A former FBI agent has been hired by the Diocese of Buffalo to investigate allegations against clergy.

Steven Halter, who served as a special FBI agent for nearly 30 years, will be the director of the diocese’s newly created office of Professional Responsibility, the Associated Press reports.

The western New York diocese has commander fire for Bishop Richard Malone’s handling of allegations of sexual abuse by priests.

Malone, under pressure to resign, acknowledged “past inadequacies” of handling complaints, but said he will not step down.

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• ATF, FBI Investigate ‘Intentional’ Car Explosion That Killed 3
• Border Patrol Agent Throws a Party, Ends Up Starting 47,000-Acre Wildfire