Deal with the Devil

by Peter Lance

  37. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, April 27, 2004.

  38. http://www.peterlance.com/302/41196.htm>.

  39. Michael Arena and Silvia Adcock, “Probers Kept in the Dark,” Newsday, August 24, 1996.

  40. Jerry Capeci, “Mobster Gets 40-Year Term,” New York Daily News, May 9, 1999.

  41. U.S. v. Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismoil, affirmation of Patrick Fitzgerald, June 25, 1999, http://peterlance.com/Fitzgerald_Affirmation_6.25.99.pdf.

  42. Denial of Recusal Motion, Judge Kevin Duffy, U.S. v. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and Eyad Ismoil, S1293CR.180 (KTD).

  43. John Napoli v. U.S., “Petitioner’s Supplement and Reply to Government’s Memorandum in Opposition to Section 2255 Petition and Request for Evidentiary Hearing,” Neil M. Shuster, August 2003, citing U.S. v. Yousef, 327 F. 3rd, 166–170 [C.A.2 (N.Y. 2003)]. Gov. App. 581–82, Napoli Ex F.

  44. Silverman interview, June 12, 2006.

  45. David Schaper, “Fitzgerald Leads Way on Plame Case,” National Public Radio, July 28, 2005.

  46. http://www.peterlance.com/Fitzgerald_Libel_Claim_Letters_HCP_Response.pdf.

  47. Patrick Fitzgerald’s Allegations and Peter Lance’s reply:

  The Allegations Regarding My Dealings with Gregory Scarpa

  Triple Cross alleged that “I filed a false affidavit with a federal judge to conceal the purported ‘fact’ that the fatal crash of TWA 800 was really a terrorist attack to which I had been tipped in advance by an organized crime figure, and that I otherwise conspired with the National Transportation Safety Board, the 9/11 Commission and numerous others to hide the truth.” (Fitzgerald letter at p. 2.)

  Regarding that claim, you contend that “the Book never accuses you of the misconduct that you allege” (Jackson letter at p. 2). You then parsed statements in the book that contain the phrase “if Napoli’s account is accurate . . .” and “. . . in my opinion” to state that “Lance sets forth certain allegations and states that if those allegations were true, then in his opinion, certain federal agencies and employees were engaged in wrongdoing. Lance is clearly permitted, as a matter of law, to set forth underlying statements of fact and then give his opinion based on those disclosed facts” (Jackson letter at p. 2).

  I will not belabor the fantastically paranoid nature of Lance’s theory that the victims of TWA 800 died as a result of a terrorist attack, but that a massive conspiracy—involving the leadership of the FBI, multiple federal prosecutors in different districts, the National Transportation Safety Board, the 9/11 Commission and others, aided and abetted by the press (save the heroic Lance)—falsely portrayed the deaths as the result of an accidental crash. I will focus on that part of the allegation which specifically defames me.

  The facts appear to be that one organized crime inmate, Greg Scarpa, claimed to the government in 1996 that another incarcerated organized crime member, John Napoli, had direct access to information about the terrorist plans of terrorist Ramzi Yousef (p. 559-565).* The government, through me, later represented in a June 1999 affidavit that the information Scarpa provided was a scam because, among other things, Scarpa provided the information to Napoli for Napoli to furnish to the government as if Napoli had obtained it himself. (Id.) The government further contended that Scarpa sought to influence Napoli to testify—falsely—at an upcoming trial that Scarpa’s father had carried out the murders that Scarpa himself was charged with.† (Id.)

  In preparation for the book, Lance apparently spoke with Napoli who corroborated that, contrary to what Scarpa told the government, Napoli did not, in fact, have any access to Yousef. Lance specifically quotes Napoli as stating that “I never spoke to Ramzi. I never spoke to Ismoil. I never spoke to none of them. Zero. No conversations. Not one” (p. 312). Napoli also corroborated that Scarpa “had this great plan that I could testify for him and in return that he would give me information to bring to the Southern District.” (Id.) Thus, if Napoli’s account is accurate, Scarpa both obstructed justice—at the very least by providing false information to the government indicating that Napoli had received information directly from Yousef when he knew he did not—and committed the crime of offering something of value to a witness to influence testimony at a federal criminal trial. (See generally Title 18, United States Code. Section 201(b)(3).) Yet in Lance’s unique style of “investigative journalism,” faced with proof that Scarpa obstructed justice, Lance instead concludes that two federal prosecutors committed obstruction of justice:

  If Napoli’s account is accurate, it appears that two senior federal prosecutors, Fitzgerald and Kelly, went along with a government story that characterized the Yousef-Scarpa Jr. intelligence as fraudulent . . . the creation of the “hoax” and “scam” story by the Feds could, in my opinion, amount to a serious obstruction of justice. (p. 313) (emphasis added).

  In short, Lance takes a witness who exposes Scarpa as a fraud and treats him as corroboration of Scarpa. It is of no moment that Lance claims that Mr. Napoli adds to his account his claimed belief that the information coming from Yousef was genuine, as Napoli admits he never spoke to Yousef at all. Nor does it matter that Napoli denies saying to Mr. Kelly that the information was fraudulent—Napoli’s own statements prove that Scarpa was fraudulently claiming that Napoli had access to Yousef. Nor is it significant that the information passed by Scarpa and Yousef to the government contained information about bomb formulas and drawings of explosives and timers. Mr. Lance conveniently overlooks the facts clear from the trial record (and other public record) that the government already had such information in its possession—something Yousef no doubt knew when he reviewed the discovery material and passed the information through Scarpa. Lance no doubt also knew this when he “pored” over the 40,000 pages of transcripts which he represented included the transcripts of Yousef’s trial.

  In any event, if my recollection of the public record is accurate, Scarpa later testified at his own trial in 1998, but was convicted of racketeering by the jury that heard his testimony. At sentencing, Judge Reena Raggi (then on the district court in the Eastern District of New York) rejected the truthfulness of Scarpa’s trial testimony. Still later, Scarpa testified at a hearing in 2004 before Judge Jack B. Weinstein who has been quoted stating: “The court finds this witness [Scarpa] to be not credible.” For good measure, I understand that a third federal judge, Judge Kevin Duffy of the Southern District of New York, found Scarpa’s efforts at cooperation to have been fraudulent.

  Author’s Response to Fitzgerald’s Claims

  If there has ever been a “non-denial denial” by a public official, Fitzgerald’s response to my Napoli revelation is a case in point. First of all, he attempts to undermine Napoli’s claims that he never told the Feds the Yousef-Scarpa intel was a fabrication by impeaching his own witness’s credibility. Keep in mind that, as per his June 1999 affirmation, Fitzgerald contended that Napoli was a key source for the “hoax” story and now he contends Napoli is not to be believed.

  Second, he alleges that per “the trial record (and other public record)” the government “already had such information in its possession—something Yousef no doubt knew when he reviewed the discovery material and passed the information through Scarpa.” But that doesn’t explain how Greg Scarpa Jr., a wiseguy with a tenth-grade education, came into possession of bomb formulas and schematics that didn’t surface at the Bojinka trial until weeks after he presented the intelligence to the Feds. It doesn’t explain how Greg Jr. revealed details that could only have come from Ramzi Yousef and ignores the fact that Yousef, then on trial for capital crimes, had absolutely no motive for scamming the prosecutors. What would the fabrication of evidence gain him? Nothing. Most important, if the government already had the intelligence in its possession, as Fitzgerald contends, why, for eleven months, was the FBI so taken with it? Why did agents dutifully record the intel in dozens of 302 memos? If the “kites” had no value, why did the FBI first give Scarpa Jr. a camera to photograph them and later set up the elaborate Roma Corp. sting? Fi
tzgerald, in his letter threatening HarperCollins with a libel suit, doesn’t answer any of those questions.

  Third, it’s not surprising that multiple federal judges believed the “hoax” and “scam” story proffered by Patrick Fitzgerald over Greg Scarpa Jr., a made member of the Mafia. But what is truly astonishing is the fact that Fitzgerald’s primary source for the fabrication story was also a mob wiseguy—John Napoli—and that Napoli was so utterly credible in his insistence to me that he never accused Greg Jr. of scamming the Feds.

  48. Silverman interview, April 13, 2004.

  49. Author’s interview with Lieutenant Colonel Anthony Shaffer, U.S. Army, November 28, 2005. An excerpt from the author’s book Triple Cross, detailing Col. Shaffer’s participation in Operation Able Danger can be accessed at http://peterlance.com/wordpress/?p=227.

  CHAPTER 39: JUNIOR’S SECOND STING

  1. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato v. U.S. 2255, hearing before Judge Jack B. Weinstein, testimony of R. Lindley DeVecchio, May 20, 1996, transcript, 4.

  2. Ibid., 5.

  3. Selwyn Raab, “F.B.I. Agent Won’t Testify at Mafia Figure’s Hearing,” New York Times, May 18, 1996.

  4. Tom Robbins and Jerry Capeci, “Judge Frees Canary’s Files,” New York Daily News, May 25, 1996.

  5. Al Guarte, “Former FBI Agent to Bare His Links with Mafia Killer,” New York Post, January 12, 1997.

  6. Selwyn Raab, “Ex-F.B.I. Official Is Pressured to Testify on Ties to Mobster,” New York Times, January 26, 1997.

  7. Author’s interview with Larry Silverman, April 14, 2004.

  8. James Barron, “Courthouse Gallery Honors Judge’s Passion for Art,” New York Times, September 29, 2010. “Judge Sifton, who died last year at age 74[,] . . . was the chief judge in Brooklyn from 1995 to 2000 and after he assumed senior status when he turned 65 in March 2000.”

  9. Helen Peterson, “Three Mob War Convictions Tossed,” New York Daily News, February 20, 1997.

  10. Lynette Holloway, “Conviction of 3 in Mob Overturned in Slayings,” New York Times, February 20, 1997.

  11. U.S. v. Orena, transcript of direct examination of R. Lindley DeVecchio by Gerald Shargel, February 28, 1997.

  12. Al Guarte, “FBI Big Shots Knew Mob Rat Killed His Rivals: ‘Mole,’” New York Post, March 1, 1997.

  13. Author’s interview with Andrew Orena, January 13, 2012.

  14. Helen Peterson, “Didn’t Leak to Mob, Retired G-Man Sez,” New York Daily News, March 1, 1997.

  15. U.S. v. Victor J. Orena and Pasquale Amato, Jack B. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, March 10, 1997, 33.

  16. Ibid., 55.

  17. Author’s interview with Flora Edwards, January 13, 2012.

  18. Weinstein, judgment, memorandum, and order, 72–73.

  19. Jerry Capeci, “My Father Did It,” New York Daily News, September 28, 1998.

  20. Jerry Capeci, “Mobster Gets 40-Year Term,” New York Daily News, May 9, 1999.

  21. Indictment CR No. 86-00351, United States of American against Gregory Scarpa Jr., Grand Jury Charges for violation of 18, U.S. Code Sections 1029 (b)(2), 1029 (a)(1), (b)(1), 1029 (a)(3), (b)(1) and 1029 (e)(1), (2), (5). Signed by Reena Raggi, United States Attorney, Eastern District of New York, 1986.

  22. Jerry Capeci, “I Spy,” New York Daily News, October 19, 1998.

  23. U.S. v. Gregory Scarpa Jr., docket number 99-1312, decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

  24. Ibid.

  25. Author’s interview with Frank Scarpa, February 15, 2012.

  26. Pasquale Amato and Victor Orena v. U.S., hearing before Judge Jack B. Weinstein, testimony of Gregory Scarpa Jr., January 7, 2004.

  27. Ibid., 32, 55.

  28. Ibid., 33.

  29. Ibid., 56.

  30. Greg B. Smith, “Family Wants Retrial for ‘Different’ Man,” New York Daily News, September 21, 2003.

  31. John Marzulli, “Mobster’s Retrial Nixed,” New York Daily News, January 16, 2004.

  32. Edna Fernandes, “Supermax Prison, the Alcatraz of the Rockies,” London Sunday Times, May 4, 2006.

  33. Author’s interview with Gregory Scarpa Jr., March 28, 2012.

  34. Stephen P. Dresch, “Report of Explosive Cache Secreted by Terry Lynn Nichols,” March 23, 2005; author’s interview with Angela Clemente, April 8, 2005.

  35. Mark Sherman, “FBI Waited to Check Out Tip on Nichols,” Associated Press, April 14, 2005.

  36. John Solomon, “Explosives Found in Former Home of Terry Nichols,” Associated Press, April 2, 2005.

  37. Sherman, “FBI Waited to Check Out Tip.”

  38. Clemente interview.

  39. Shelly Murphy, “Miami Jury Convicts Connolly,” Boston Globe, November 7, 2008.

  40. William LaForm, “Former Lynnfielder Connolly Ends Federal Sentence Next Week,” Lynnfield–North Reading Patch, June 24, 2011.

  41. Shelly Murphy, “Judge Testifies Connolly Helped Decimate the Mafia,” Boston Globe, October 14, 2008.

  42. Ibid.

  43. Dan Kennedy, “O Brother, Where Art Thou? Making Sense of Bill Bulger’s Testimony and the Media Frenzy It Inspired,”Boston Phoenix, June 27, 2003.

  44. “John B. Callahan,” profile, Boston Globe, September 17, 2008, http://www.boston.com/news/specials/whitey/articles/profile_of_john_callahan/.

  45. Shelly Murphy, “Sides Make Case to Connolly Jurors,” Boston Globe, November 4, 2008.

  46. Shelly Murphy, “Cases Disappear as FBI Looks Away,” Boston Globe, July 22, 1998.

  47. Statement of Charles J. Hynes, press conference announcing indictments of DeVecchio, Sobel, and Sinagra, March 30, 2006.

  48. Ibid.

  49. Peter Lance, Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror (New York: ReganBooks, 2004), 1–128.

  50. Special Agent Chris Favo, FBI 302 memo, February 6, 1994, 3.

  51. Jonathan Dienst, “Brooklyn DA Opens Mob Leak Investigation,” WNBC.com, January 4, 2006.

  52. Press release, “King’s County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes Announces Murder Indictment Against Retired FBI Agent and Two Mob Hit Men in Multiple Murder Cases,” March 30, 2006.

  53. Ibid.

  54. Ibid.; People v. R. Lindley DeVecchio and John Sinagra, indictment no. 6825/2005, unsealed March 30, 2006.

  55. Carole E. Lee, “Who Is R. Lindley DeVecchio?” Sarasota Herald-Tribune, January 21, 2007.

  56. “Kings County District Attorney” press release, March 30, 2006.

  57. R. Lindley DeVecchio and Charles Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing: The Shocking Frame-up of a Mafia Crime Buster (New York: Berkley, 2011), 9–17.

  58. William Rashbaum, “F.B.I. Colleagues Help Ex-Agent Post Bail,” New York Times, March 31, 2006.

  59. Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA), statement before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, FBI Oversight Hearing, May 2, 2006.

  60. Ibid.

  61. Jerry Capeci, “Former Mob-Busting FBI Agent to Be Charged with Murder in Mafia Hits,” New York Sun, March 9, 2006.

  62. Murray Weiss, “‘Mob’ Fed’s Filthy Lucre—FBI Agent Cashed in as Mafia Slay Mole: DA,” New York Post, March 30, 2006.

  63. Nanci L. Katz, “G-Man Denies Errands for Mob,” New York Daily News, March 31, 2006.

  64. Angela Mosconi, “Boss: Ex-Agent No Thug,” New York Daily News, April 16, 2006.

  65. A PDF of the Friends of Lin DeVecchio website can be accessed at http://peterlance.com/Friends_of_Lin_Bail_Hearing_3_1_07.pdf.

  66. Shelly Murphy, “‘Donnie Brasco’ Refuses to Testify in Connolly Trial,” Boston Globe, October 15, 2008. When the trial judge denied Pistone’s demand that photographers not be allowed to take pictures of his testimony, he withdrew his offer. As Globe reporter Murphy wrote, “His photo is all over the Internet, most recently on a blog promoting his alleged efforts to solve the 1990 theft of $300 million worth of artwork from Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. But today, Joseph D. Pistone refused to t
ake the witness stand at the state murder trial of his longtime friend, former FBI Agent John J. Connolly Jr., because the judge rejected his request for an order prohibiting the media from filming or photographing him as he testified.” Pistone’s undoctored photo was also published in the photo section of DeVecchio’s book We’re Going to Win This Thing (photo section, p. 4).

  67. Alan Feuer, “In Role Reversal, Ex-F.B.I. Agents Align Themselves with Defendant,” New York Times, September 11, 2006.

  68. “Court Battle to Revoke Bail of Reputed Mob Boss Continues,” Associated Press, May 3, 1986, https://www.ncjrs.gov/App/publications/Abstract.aspx?id=166510.

  69. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 16.

  70. Fredric Dannen, “The G-Man and the Hit Man,” New Yorker, December 16, 1996.

  71. DeVecchio and Brandt, We’re Going to Win This Thing, 168.

  72. Lee, “Who Is R. Lindley DeVecchio?”

  73. Michael Brick, “Agent Accused in Mob Murders Seeks Immunity,” New York Times, April 11, 2006.

  74. Author’s interview with Ellen Resnick, February 21, 2012.

  75. Addendum: Criminal Investigative Division, April 8, 1987, requesting additional authority for payment to Gregory Scarpa Sr. It describes broadly the “services” the informant provided in three major investigations identified as “Shooting Star,” “Gambino Family,” and “Starquest.”