FBI stonewalling means we never learn the full extent of Whitey’s stain
“Unusual circumstances” – that’s the excuse the FBI is citing for its stonewalling of the Herald’s request for all its records on the late Whitey Bulger.
Actually, it’s more like “usual circumstances” – the feds again trying to cover up one of the greatest scandals in Bureau history, namely, their corrupt relationship with a cocaine-dealing serial killer who recruited as many as a half-dozen Boston agents to protect his far-flung criminal empire.
But Whitey is dead. All the crooked feds are retired or in prison. The Boston office is purged of its bad apples.
So what’s the problem?
I mean, it’s not like we’re asking for the perjured FISA warrant applications the crooked feds cooked up in 2016-17 to improperly surveil the Trump campaign and presidency on behalf of Hillary Clinton and the Democrats.
The Herald isn’t asking for the pillow-talk texts of lovebird pencil pushers Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Or the emails detailing the sordid decision by Jim Comey to broom the slam-dunk espionage and obstruction of justice cases against Hillary back in 2016.
All we want is the Whitey files, all of them. The feds claim they have to “search for and collect” the “voluminous amount of separate and distinct records” after which there is a “need for consultation” blah blah blah.
This is the G-men’s standard m.o. Back in 2006, federal Judge Nancy Gertner threatened to hold then-director Robert Mueller (now in charge of the Russian “investigation”) in contempt. He was stonewalling the production of documents relating to another FBI scandal in Boston – the framing of four innocent men for a murder they did not commit.
Gertner wrote that Mueller’s arrogant refusal to turn over exculpatory evidence was “about FBI agents allegedly hiding the ball, not disclosing critical information.”
Some things never change.
Here are some of the questions we’d still like answered:
What’s the feds’ best estimate on how many people Whitey killed? His partner Stevie Flemmi admitted last summer to more than 50 murders, but they weren’t always working together. A lot of people would still like to know who murdered their loved ones way back when.
How many FBI agents did Whitey have on the pad? Again, we have Stevie’s testimony last summer of about paying off a half dozen or so, but is that the Bureau’s estimate as well? And please don’t tell me there are no documents on that scandal.
How many of Whitey’s crooked G-men are still collecting pensions? I’m guessing every last one of them, including Zip Connolly, who is in the middle of a 40-year sentence for a gangland hit in Florida. But if we’re wrong tell us, and take a bow for stripping these bent cops of their ill-gotten gains.
What’s your best guess on where Whitey’s money is stashed, and how much there is? And when Catherine Grieg is released from prison in 2020, are you going to keep her under surveillance?
Who was responsible for all the dirty deeds done to honest cops who crossed Bulger? Which State House hack ordered the transfer of Trooper Billy Johnson from Logan Airport after he stopped Whitey Bulger from taking $100,000 cash out of the country?
Surely the FBI knows the answer to that question.
Or how about the mysterious rider in the state budget that would have required the number-two guy in the State Police to retire as punishment for bugging Whitey’s garage in the West End?
The Congressional investigators spent months futilely trying to solve that mystery. But the G-men must know, right?
We know how many newsmen Whitey threatened to kill. Do the feds have a list of the politicians? Some of those Whitey most likely threatened have since died, but we’d like to know who they were. And speaking of pols, can we get a complete accounting of who Whitey was paying off, both at City Hall and the State House?
Perhaps his best-known quote is, “Christmas is for cops and kids.” So which cops was Whitey playing Santa to?
We’d love to get the answers to any of these questions, but if we did, it would be one of the most unusual circumstances ever.
