A Chicago FBI agent who has repeatedly and publicly criticized the bureau’s ability to investigate terrorism will be reinstated following controversial attempts to fire him, the Chicago Tribune reports. The Department of Justice last week overruled the FBI and ordered Agent Robert G. Wright Jr., a 15-year agent, reinstated. Said Wright: “I look forward to doing my job. That’s all I’m going to say.” Wright’s problems stem from his appearance at a 2003 news conference and on a national news program in which he criticized the bureau.
Wright, who has been suspended without pay since June, will not be reinstated until sometime in December–in effect a six-month suspension without pay. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called the punishment excessive. Wright has called FBI attempts to investigate terrorism “pathetic” and referred to the bureau’s International Terrorism Unit as a “complete joke.”
Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0510190293oct19,1,7753678.story?coll=chi-news-hed