Thread: Statement by the U.S. Department of Justice in response to a

Posted: 7:37 p.m. March 28, 2010
Statement by the U.S. Department of Justice in response to assertions by Nada Prouty

* Comments 8
The Justice Department makes no apologies for the prosecution of Nada Prouty. A Lebanese national, Prouty fraudulently obtained U.S. citizenship while living in this country illegally. She did so with the help of others engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the United States, including her brother-in-law who is now an international fugitive. Prouty then used her phony citizenship to obtain employment with two agencies in the U.S. intelligence community: the FBI and CIA.

Although she had many opportunities to inform the FBI and CIA about her past illegal activities, Prouty failed to do so. It was ultimately the U.S. government that uncovered her fraud. Given the sensitive positions she held, Prouty represented a national security vulnerability that required immediate action. It was imperative to determine whether she had obtained her positions in the intelligence community for nefarious purposes and whether American adversaries had exploited her compromised status by pressuring her to work on their behalf. The U.S. government moved quickly to investigate the case, close down the vulnerability and bring the perpetrator to justice.

On Nov. 13, 2007, Prouty admitted her crimes under oath before a federal judge. She pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining U.S. citizenship which she used to gain employment at the FBI and CIA. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the United States and to commit marriage fraud, naturalization fraud, perjury and false statements. She also pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing an FBI computer system to query data on her brother-in-law, Talal Chahine, her sister, and the terrorist organization Hizballah. Chahine is now an international fugitive wanted by the United States for extortion, tax evasion, immigration fraud and conspiracy, believed to be in Lebanon. Before fleeing the country, Chahine helped Prouty defraud the INS into granting her U.S. citizenship and falsely vouched for her to help her obtain employment with the FBI.

Prouty was sentenced to serve no jail time. Given the unusual circumstances surrounding her status as a Lebanese national with prior service in the U.S. intelligence community, the U.S. government agreed that Prouty would not be deported from the United States, although she was required by law to be stripped of her U.S. citizenship. While most defendants convicted of naturalization fraud and stripped of their U.S. citizenship are deported after serving a criminal sentence, Prouty today remains free to stay in the United States, work and travel, albeit under certain restrictions imposed by U.S. law and enforced by the Department of Homeland Security.

Unfortunately, it appears that Prouty today seeks to cast herself as a victim of the U.S. government and the subject of an overzealous prosecution. The career federal prosecutors handling this case had an obligation to seek justice for these crimes and to close down a serious security vulnerability. They achieved both objectives fairly and appropriately with the assistance of the CIA and FBI. The only victim in this case was the U.S. government which was repeatedly defrauded by Prouty and risked compromise because of her illegal acts.

Prouty also suggests she was the victim of unfair media coverage fueled by the government. To the contrary, the Justice Department held no press conference on her plea and issued a factual press release that carefully tracked the public court record as is standard and appropriate practice. The public documents in Prouty's case described her crimes in clear and measured terms. How the press ultimately portrayed those documents is not something the government controls, nor should it. Had the Justice Department attempted to purposely conceal from the public and the media a public guilty plea by its former employee (Prouty), it would deserve severe criticism.

While Prouty's counterterrorism service on behalf of the FBI and CIA has been publicly recognized, her service does not excuse or expunge her illegal behavior. She has no one to blame but herself for her predicament. The actions taken by the government to address her crimes were measured, appropriate and consistent with obligations to uphold the law without fear or favor.

www.freep.com

wasnt this on 60 minutes last nite?