On August 17, 2022, a former FBI Special Agent previously assigned to the FBI’s Fayetteville Field Office pleaded guilty to one count of corruptly destroying an object with the intent to impair its integrity and availability for use in an official proceeding. Robert F. Cessario pleaded guilty in the Western District of Arkansas. According to the factual statement in support of the guilty plea, from on or about December 4, 2017, through on or about December 6, 2017, Cessario erased the contents of his government computer hard drive, knowing that a court had ordered the computer to be submitted for forensic examination, with the intent to impair the integrity and availability of the computer hard drive and its contents for use in an official proceeding. Cessario further admitted that he had obtained recordings from a cooperating defendant in connection with the same official proceeding and placed those recordings on his government computer, and that he wiped the computer after questions arose about when and in what manner he had obtained the recordings. The investigation is being conducted by the OIG’s Dallas Field Office.
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