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i Loe nT oe | ‘Gham ony ti ” ” oy aan ’ erties ibaniinies- a | eemnenenah ih lee ae cee eee rr 07 Mr. Apama, Well, when an individual is being developed as an in- formant, our main concern is whether he provides reliable information and that the information he collects is collected by legal means. We don’t permit an informant to engage in any activity that an agent couldn't do legal 4 himself. In other words, you can’t hare an extension of the agent out here engaging in illegal acts, and the agent saying abide by the law. This creates some problems, of course, in the criminal] field where you don’t recruit informants from Sunday schools. You recruit informants in areas where they do have knowl of criminal activities. But we even had to open investigations and prosecute some of our informanis, because we do not bend from this, that they are not going to enjoy favorite status as a result of their relationship with the agent covers all of this with an informant during the discussions. We secure background information on the informants. We do this to insure, 2s best as possible. we are dealing with a reliable, stable in- dividual even though he may be engaged in an unstable activity. We go through this period and consider them more or less, in different terminology, probationary, potential. verifying information that he furnishes us, and everytime when they report on the status of an in- formant, they have to tell us what percentage of his information has been verified by other means, by other informants or sources. So we do have a continuing indoctrination which is supervised at FBI headquarters. Senator Tower, You said you don’t recruit your informants from Sunday school class. Being an ex-Sunday schoo! teacher, J resent that, nt—— _ Mr. Apams. I am talking in the criminal field. Many of our security informants come from a very fine background. . ’ tor Tower. But this leads me into this. Sometimes, then, you might recruit people that you know have committed criminal acts. Mr. Apams, That’s true. a a ; _ Senator Tower. Do you promise him immunity from future prosecu- tion in many instances to secure their cooperation f Mr. Apaws. No. Now, the only exception to that would be we may have an ongoing, it is what you call an informant—I believe your question is addressed to someone that we are actually considering in an fn fawenané cotati SELLS BAILED OLE Senator Tower. Yes. Mr. Apams. We do have situations where during an investigation we target on one individual, the lower rung, and the U.S. Attorney and the Department offer immunity. We don’t, And say, you coop- erate, and we go up the ladder to the next level, and in some of these cases we have gone up through successive stages until we get the main honcho who we feel is the proper target of our investigation. Senator Tower. Getting on another subject, does the FBI still re- quest bank audits? Mr. Apaws. Bank audits? Do you mean do we still have access to bank records? Senator Towes. Yes. Mr. Apams. Yes, sir. we do. Senator Tower. And do you obtain access with or without warrants?