FBI agent sues for permission to report undercover misconduct

WASHINGTON - A 20-year veteran FBI agent is asking court permission to tell President Clinton and watchdogs in Congress about what he calls criminal misconduct by federal workers during a top secret, undercover national security operation.

But the bureau says his allegations have already been addressed. FBI Director Louis Freeh and Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder have denied agent Joseph G. Rogoskey permission to relay his allegations to Clinton and House and Senate committees.

Rogoskey's attorney, Stephen Kohn, responded that ''keeping whistle-blower allegations within the institution that authorized the misconduct does not serve the public interest and raises grave constitutional questions.''

Besides, Kohn added, ''We don't know if the FBI has fixed the problem,'' because Rogoskey has been on paid administrative leave since the summer of 1998.

In a lawsuit filed Friday, Rogoskey said that as an undercover agent he ''witnessed acts of serious misconduct and violation of federal law by employees of the federal government during the course of their employment.''

FBI spokesman Bill Carter replied, ''We understand all the allegations of government misconduct have long been appropriately addressed.''

Rogoskey spent 12 years, 1987 through 1998, on top-secret, undercover operations involving some of the government's deepest secrets that are accessible only to specified people.

He can't even tell Kohn any details of the operation or the alleged misconduct. Kohn only knows that ''it doesn't involve anyone stealing money. It involves what they were ordered and permitted by the government to do in this operation.''

Like the FBI, Holder advised Rogoskey by letter that he should report ''whistle-blower-type allegations'' to internal FBI investigators or Justice Department inspector general agents who ''have the appropriate security clearances.''

Rogoskey first reported his allegations to his immediate supervisor in late 1997, ''promptly upon observing them,'' Kohn said.

Since then, the FBI has retaliated against Rogoskey, who had received the highest, ''exceptional'' ratings for his work in each of the 12 years he worked undercover, the lawsuit said.

It said the retaliation included an allegation of misconduct against Rogoskey, of which FBI investigators cleared him; efforts by superiors ''to call into question his integrity;'' and recently threatening to fire him for medical reasons if he fails a fitness-for-duty exam.

The FBI's Carter responded: ''Any internal disciplinary or other employment problems Mr. Rogoskey may have experienced are completely unrelated to providing the earlier allegations.''

Kohn said: ''Fitness reviews are extremely intrusive. They include psychiatric exams, interviews with his wife and examination of his sex life.''

A fitness exam was ordered of another FBI whistle-blower client of Kohn's, Frederic Whitehurst, the chemist whose allegations led to an inspector general's finding the FBI Laboratory engaged in sloppy science and gave biased testimony for the prosecution.

''Even though Whitehurst was found fit, the FBI tried to discredit him with material from the fitness exam,'' Kohn said.

He said Rogoskey has applied for workman's compensation because two doctors concluded he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder caused by his work. ''He has work-related injuries because they kept him undercover too long and from the retaliation,'' the lawyer said.

FBI officials have said that agents who spend long periods undercover can suffer tensions from maintaining dual personalities.

In the lawsuit, Rogoskey asked the U.S. District Court here to decide whether he can transmit his allegations to Clinton and congressional oversight committees, to bar the government from retaliation and to process his worker's compensation claim instead of ordering a fitness review.