Jury Sees FBI Training Video of Agent Accused of Corruption

Testimony ended Tuesday in the corruption trial of a decorated former FBI agent accused of tipping off gangster informants to witnesses against them, after jurors watched an FBI training film in which the agent warns against authorizing criminal conduct.

The trial of retired FBI agent John Connolly spanned three weeks and offered a who’s who of the Boston underworld, many of whom testified as government witnesses. Among them was a hit man who admits killing 20 people.

Connolly, 61, has pleaded not guilty to federal charges that he tipped off alleged mob bosses James “Whitey” Bulger and Stephen “The Rifleman” Flemmi to witnesses linking them to murders.

If convicted on all charges, Connolly could face up to 80 years in prison. Closing arguments are expected to begin Thursday.

Bulger, a fugitive since 1995, is one of the FBI’s most wanted people and allegedly controlled organized crime in Boston after helping the FBI topple the Italian Mafia.

Connolly received commendations, including one from former FBI Director William S. Sessions, for his handling of so-called top-echelon informants such as Bulger and his top lieutenant, Flemmi. But prosecutors alleged that Connolly gave his informants vital information to avoid prosecution for criminal activities, including murder, loan sharking, extortion and bribery.

In 1976, for example, prosecutors allege Connolly told Bulger that a bookmaker was an FBI informant helping the agency locate two fugitives in New York City. Prosecutors allege Bulger had the bookmaker murdered so his associates would not be found.

U.S. District Judge Edward Harrington testified for the defense and described Connolly’s contributions against organized crime as “very, very significant.” Harrington knew Connolly’s work from his days as a U.S. attorney from 1977 to 1981.

“He was able to develop high-echelon informants that served as the basis for wiretaps and bugs that were very, very successful,” Harrington testified Tuesday.

But after Connolly retired in 1990 to take a job with a Boston utility company, his prized recruits, Bulger and Flemmi, were no longer used as informants, said Edward Quinn, a 30-year FBI veteran who worked with Connolly.

Quinn said he made the decision, in part, because the informants’ information was “historical in nature” and could not be used to make cases against other criminals.

Connolly’s defense attorneys showed a 20-minute FBI training film made in 1983 in which Connolly discusses his approach to handling informants. He acknowledged that it is an FBI agent’s duty to report any information that links an informant to criminal activity.

“You have to make sure you’re not making promises to these people to authorize criminal conduct,” Connolly said in the film. “You should be in the driver’s seat with these people.”

But at the same time, Connolly said, he did not want to know about an informant’s criminal activities. “Let some other agent make the case,” he said.