WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Wednesday that he does not know how many of his agents cheated on an important exam on the bureau’s policies, discussing an embarrassing investigation that raises questions about whether the FBI knows its own rules for conducting surveillance on Americans.
The Justice Department inspector general is investigating whether hundreds of agents cheated on the test. Some took the open-book test together, violating rules that they take it alone. Others finished the lengthy exam unusually quickly, current and former officials said.
The test was supposed to ensure that FBI agents understand new rules allowing them to conduct surveillance and open files on Americans without evidence of criminal wrongdoing. If agents can’t pass that test without cheating, civil liberties groups ask, how can they follow them?
Asked about an Associated Press report about the cheating investigation, Mueller said he does not know how widespread the problem was.
“I’ve got a general idea, but I do not know how many,” Mueller testified. “And I am not certain the IG knows how many either.”
In Columbia, S.C., for instance, agents said they got approval from the FBI policy office to print the test in advance and use it as a study guide, according to a letter to the inspector general from the FBI Agents Association. The head of the policy office later said that wasn’t true, the letter said.
Mueller told Congress that, despite the cheating investigation, the FBI understands the rules and is following them.
