FBI Agent Admits Deleting Emails Amid Terror Probe

Published January 13, 2012 1:00AM (EST)

NEW YORK (AP) — An FBI agent says she deleted potentially sensitive emails covering a five-month period when she was helping investigate a terror suspect.

Jennifer Dent made the admission Thursday under cross-examination at a pretrial hearing in New York City. She blamed it on a "storage issue" with FBI the computer system in Nigeria, where she was stationed.

A judge directed prosecutors to have the FBI technicians make more efforts to retrieve the emails to see if any could be evidence in the case.

Dent testified she was among the first U.S. investigators to interview Mohamed Ibrahim Ahmed about allegations that he provided material support to an extremist group in Somalia. Ahmed was brought to Manhattan last year to face federal terrorism charges.

The suspect's lawyers want the judge to suppress his statements.


By Salon Staff

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