The Drug Enforcement Administration has allowed dozens of job applicants to become special agents and perform other work despite failing a lie detector test during the hiring process, according to a new federal watchdog report, which describes the agency’s polygraph unit as facing pressure to pass “legacy” candidates related to senior officials.
Details of the report, issued Wednesday by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, were independently verified by The Times based on court documents obtained from a whistleblower case filed by a former member of the DEA polygraph unit.
Beyond special treatment to friends and family members of DEA officials, the whistleblower has said agency bosses ignored admissions of criminal behavior that should have been reported for further investigation, including a case in which a job applicant “admitted to pedophiliac tendencies” during a polygraph exam.
The whistleblower asked not to be identified because of pending litigation and referred questions to their lawyer. They said they alerted supervisors in 2018 after an applicant discussed “pedophilic impulses towards his own daughter and other children.” But they were told “there was nothing that could be done,” and that they “would be liable” for making an anonymous complaint to local law enforcement or social services.
The candidate was not hired, and the matter was eventually reported to the DEA’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which investigates misconduct by...
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