FBI employee charged with selling documents

By Kelli Arena
CNN Justice Department Correspondent

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The FBI said on Wednesday it has charged one of its security analysts with selling classified records and documents on criminal cases and grand jury investigations involving organized crime, illegal aliens and white-collar crime.

James Hill, 51, was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, last week, where he worked in the FBI's office. He first appeared in court on Friday and is scheduled to have another appearance later Wednesday.

According to a complaint filed in federal court in New York -- where the cases Hill allegedly sold information about were based -- Hill sold the documents to a private investigator, who in turn passed them on to attorneys and criminal defendants.

Hill, the complaint said, was paid about $25,000 for the "hundreds" of documents. The alleged illegal activity took place between November 1999 and June 14, 2001.

As a precaution, the FBI said a national security damage assessment is under way. But it appears the information he allegedly sold all concerns criminal activities, officials said.

The complaint says that Hill had access to confidential information about witnesses and electronic surveillance, among other things.

Hill, according to the complaint, was recruited by the private investigator, who is not identified by name. The private investigator was arrested in Oyster Bay, New York, on June 14 and had classified documents at the time, the complaint said.

Under, the FBI's supervision, the private investigator then placed a call to Hill asking for his help in securing classified documents involving one grand jury investigation. Hill, according to the complaint, agreed, saying he would send the material by fax to New York.

Hill was arrested after that phone call.

News of Hill's arrest came on the same day that a Senate committee heard testimony on restoring confidence in the FBI.

The FBI has been under fire for a number of high-profile snafus, including its revelation last month that it had failed to turn over thousands of pages of documents to attorneys during the trial of convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. That development led to the postponement of McVeigh's execution, which occurred last week.

The agency was also shaken by the arrest this year of FBI agent Robert Hanssen, who allegedly spied for the Soviet Union and later Russia for 15 years without being detected.