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4.12.2001 00:13
FBI agent accused of threatening aide over Cianci 'lies'
 The mayor's staff administrator says the skirmish centered on comments made this week on the
Imus In The Morning
radio show.
BY MIKE STANTON
Journal Staff Writer
The battle between Mayor Vincent A. Cianci Jr. and federal investigators escalated again yesterday, with an aide to the mayor accusing the FBI of taking the struggle to the streets.
Christopher M. Nocera, the mayor's staff administrator, says the lead FBI agent in Operation Plunder Dome, the investigation into City Hall corruption, accosted him on the street outside City Hall on Tuesday morning.
Nocera says that the agent, W. Dennis Aiken, took exception to the mayor's "lies" during an appearance on the
Imus In The Morning
radio show.
Cianci told Don Imus that the FBI agent in Plunder Dome had signed an affidavit admitting to obtaining money under false pretenses earlier in his career, possibly involving illegal overtime.
In fact, the FBI agent signed an affidavit in which he said he was censured in 1982 as part of an internal FBI investigation for lying about signing an internal document on behalf of another employee. There was no reference to obtaining money under false pretenses or illegal overtime.
Aiken also said in the affidavit that the document he signed did not contain any false statements, and that he subsequently corrected his statement. Since then, the affidavit said, Aiken has received several promotions, rising to head the FBI's Public Corruption Unit in Washington before returning to the field in Rhode Island.
Cianci mentioned Aiken's affidavit during a 15-minute appearance on the nationally syndicated
Imus show about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
About an hour later, Nocera says, he was going to work when Aiken -- whom he knows from being summoned to the Plunder Dome grand jury -- confronted him outside City Hall.
"Agent Aiken then shook my hand and told me in a very firm tone that I better go tell my piece of [expletive] mayor to retract the lies he told about him on the radio that morning," Nocera said.
According to Nocera, Aiken said that he was contacting a lawyer and that there would be trouble if the mayor did not retract his statement.
"Then he told me that the mayor could go around saying anything he wanted about himself but that he better not tell any lies about him," Nocera said.
Throughout the brief encounter, Nocera said, Aiken "shook my hand, stood very close to me and was very firm in his tone and manner."
Cianci's lawyer, Richard M. Egbert, wrote to U.S. Attorney Margaret E. Curran to condemn Aiken's behavior.
An FBI spokeswoman in Boston confirmed that there was "a happenstance meeting" between Aiken and Nocera, but disagreed with Egbert's interpretation.
"We understand that there are different perceptions of an incident," said the spokeswoman, Gail Marcinkiewicz. "We disagree with Mr. Egbert's characterization of this event." She declined further comment.
In an interview late yesterday, Cianci conceded that he didn't know for certain that Aiken had been involved in obtaining money under false pretenses. Nonetheless, he said, his comments to Imus were fair.
"I was on an early-morning talk show, I said what I said," Cianci said. "He [Aiken] signed an affidavit saying that he lied . . . whether it was about money, women, I don't know what it's about. The word on the street is that it was false pretenses or overtime. You tell them to come public about why Aiken lied. But I know one thing. He under oath -- under oath -- said that he lied."
THE STATEMENT
was the latest skirmish between the mayor and the federal government since Cianci's indictment last week on federal racketeering and corruption charges.
The mayor, who stands accused of operating a criminal enterprise out of City Hall, has aggressively defended his innocence in a series of public appearances and interviews, including one yesterday with NBC
Today Show co-host Matt Lauer.
Cianci has already opened fire this week on the lead prosecutor in the case, Asst. U.S. Attorney Richard W. Rose, after the disclosure that Rose had shown parts of a secret FBI surveillance tape to his sister and two friends last summer.
Now, in a continuation of Cianci's claims that he is a victim of government persecution, the mayor has also taken aim at Aiken.
"We go from tapes that are being released, private showings, sneak previews, now we go to witnesses being intimidated on the streets," Cianci said. "Don't forget, this man was armed."
Was the mayor suggesting that Aiken had brandished his weapon? "I didn't say that," Cianci said angrily. "He was armed! . . . He's an armed agent of the federal government. And it had nothing to do with the case. It had to do with him personally."
Yesterday, Egbert faxed to the media copies of Nocera's statement and a letter that Egbert had written to Curran.
Egbert complained that Aiken addressed Nocera in "a menacing tone" and was "literally inches from his face." Nocera was "nervous and intimidated," he said.
"This type of behavior and language by a person in the employ of the Department of Justice should be quickly and forcefully condemned," Egbert wrote. "The aforementioned conduct, together with the threatening conduct of . . . Aiken's remarks cause me a great deal of concern for the fairness of the process concerning Mayor Cianci."
When Curran did not respond, Egbert took his complaint to the media.
Though the mayor has clashed with the press before, Egbert yesterday invoked the First Amendment as a vital "check upon institutional abuses" designed to "protect the citizenry from fear or intimidation at the hands of government power."
"Perhaps shining the light of day will prevent events like this from reoccurring," Egbert said in a statement. "I invite you to investigate these matters fully and responsibly report on them."
Despite Egbert's invitation, Nocera did not respond to The Journal's requests to discuss the matter. Aiken and the U.S. Attorney also declined comment.
Brown University political science Prof. Darrell West said that Cianci's attacks on the government are part of the mayor's efforts to court public opinion and sway potential jurors.
"The mayor understands that public opinion is important," West said. "If he can frame this as a conspiracy against him, where prosecutors mishandled the case, instead of an up-or-down question about his guilt or innocence, that's a substantial achievement.
"The jury pool comes from the court of public opinion. He's trying to influence potential jurors."
West says that the mayor is borrowing a page from the playbook that many defendants employ in high-profile cases -- one that the mayor himself used in 1983 after he was charged with felony assault for beating up a man he suspected of sleeping with his estranged wife.
Cianci pleaded guilty in that case, but he won public sympathy by portraying himself as a wronged husband -- while prosecutors, bound by court rules, could not publicly answer back.
On the
Imus show Tuesday, Cianci -- a former state prosecutor -- painted himself as an underdog facing persecution by federal prosecutors.
"When you go against the United States of America, the federal government, they bring out the FBI, the IRS, the Coast Guard, the National Guard, the Navy SEALs," Cianci said. "And there you are, alone, fighting this stuff."
Yesterday, Cianci scoffed at West's comments that he is playing to potential jurors.
"I only speak the truth," Cianci said. "I'm not the one who released the tapes . . . I'm the mayor. If they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody."
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