Agent in Presser Case Fired by FBI : Charged With Lying About Relationship With Teamster

FBI Director William H. Webster, after weeks of deliberation, has fired a veteran bureau supervisor who is awaiting trial on charges that he lied to Justice Department investigators about his relationship to Teamsters President Jackie Presser, it was learned Tuesday.

Although the action against FBI supervisor Robert S. Friedrick appeared to prejudge his conduct, a top bureau official insisted that the firing was based on circumstances independent of the pending criminal case. In any event, the dismissal serves to put more distance between bureau headquarters and Friedrick at a time when two other FBI men also are under scrutiny in the controversial Presser case.

Payroll-Padding Scheme

Friedrick, 42, an expert on organized crime and 13-year veteran of the FBI’s Cleveland field office, was indicted in May at the same time that Presser and two Teamsters associates were charged with misusing $700,000 in union funds in a payroll-padding scheme.

The charges revived the controversial and politically sensitive case against Presser, who heads the nation’s largest union and was President Reagan’s only political supporter among organized labor leaders in the 1980 and 1984 presidential elections.

The indictments were handed down as a yearlong internal investigation by the Justice Department concluded that top department officials had been misled into dropping the original case against Presser in July, 1985, because of statements by Friedrick and two other FBI men. At that time, charges against the labor leader had been considered but were not filed.

‘Handled’ Presser

The two other FBI men involved in the case have not been indicted but are still being investigated. They are retired agent Martin P. McCann Jr. and Patrick Foran, now assistant chief of the Las Vegas FBI field office. McCann, Foran and Friedrick served, in succession, as Cleveland-based supervisors who “handled” Presser as a confidential FBI informant from 1972 to 1985, according to federal officials, who have refused to be identified.

The original prosecution of Presser was abandoned after all three FBI men gave sworn statements in the summer of 1985 that they had authorized Presser to keep mob-related “ghost employees” on his hometown union’s payroll. Those sworn statements, which supported contentions by Presser’s lawyer, John R. Climaco, were viewed at that time as divesting Presser of any criminal intent in his alleged payroll padding.

Assistant FBI Director William M. Baker acknowledged that the firing of an agent like Friedrick for reasons other than financial misconduct was a rare event. But Webster took the action late last week “after serious deliberation and careful consideration of the facts,” he said.

“The decision was reached on facts that would have been involved with or without a trial,” Baker said. “The situation met our criteria for this action.”

Reportedly Failed Lie Test

Although Baker refused to elaborate, another source familiar with the Friedrick case, who spoke on condition that he would not be named, said FBI officials were upset that Friedrick last January failed a lie detector test based on his original Presser case affidavit.

According to this source and others, Friedrick conceded later that he had based his affidavit--which cleared Presser--not on first-hand knowledge but largely on information provided to him by his predecessors, McCann and Foran, and by the Teamster leader himself.

In addition, he conceded that he had failed to tell investigators about a series of meetings on this subject that he had held with McCann and Foran, and separately with Presser, in the summer of 1985, according to the sources.

William D. Beyer, Friedrick’s attorney, said he was notified by letter of Friedrick’s firing but would not comment on it. Since his indictment, Friedrick had been on administrative leave with full pay.

Firing to Be Appealed

“He’s an honest guy, and he’s going to look for a job,” Beyer said. “Since Bob has full veteran rights from his service in Vietnam, I intend to appeal his dismissal to the federal Merit System Protection Board.”

Dan Gordon, another veteran in the Cleveland FBI office, said he and many colleagues are continuing a nationwide drive to raise a legal defense fund for Friedrick. Gordon refused to say how much had been raised.

Gordon was among 60 FBI agents from northern Ohio who demonstrated personal support for Friedrick at his arraignment last May by traveling to Washington and standing outside the U.S. Courthouse.

Friedrick’s trial is scheduled to begin on Dec. 2. No date has been set for Presser’s trial in Cleveland.