Government Employment of Criminals (Department of Homeland Security, Under Secretary Office of Intelligence & Analysis )

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

All records concerning your agency's employment of persons whom you know to have committed criminal offenses and your agency's policies on such employment.

Many people have heard stories of the computer hacker who becomes a government agent. The purpose of this request is to shed light on this practice within your agency. The types of records which I would expect to exist include:
1) Written policies and procedures concerning the hiring of employees, contractors or agents where the potential recruit either has been convicted of a criminal offense, been arrested in suspension of a criminal offense, or has revealed that they engaged in behavior in violation of the law without getting caught.

2) Requests or other documentation in consideration of making an exemption to any such policy described in #1.

3) Reports detailing the hiring of any person such as is described in #1.

You may limit your search to records created between 1/20/2009 and the date this request is processed.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Jason Smathers

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on Nov. 6, 2013. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed.

Thank you for your help.

Hello,

According to the attached letter, this request has been forwarded to DHS HQ FOIA. Please confirm receipt and provide a tracking number.

Thank you.