Wayne Simmons claimed to have 23 years experience with the secretive federal agency as an “outside paramilitary special operations officer”, CNN reports.
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Simmons also allegedly claimed on national security forms that prior arrests and criminal convictions were related to his alleged intelligence work for the CIA, and he had held a top secret security clearance, according to the indictment. He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday afternoon.
A Fox News spokeswoman, Carly Shanahan, said Simmons was never more than a guest on the network. He is being charged with major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government, the U.S. Attorney’s Office press release said.
Janet Cooke, who falsely claimed a master’s degree from the University of Toledo, wrote a profile in 1980 for the Washington Post on an 8-year-old heroin addict. The biography also claims Simmons was “one of the first outside Intelligence officers” to visit Guantanamo Bay in July 2005.
Simmons is a familiar face to Fox News viewers. Simmons will have his initial appearance later today before U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Anderson.
Wayne Simmons claimed he was “recruited” by the CIA after joining the Navy and had led operations against drug cartels and arm smugglers in Central and South America, as well as the Middle East.
In recent years, he has been a member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi, a panel created by the right-leaning Accuracy in Media to investigate the 2012 attack on a US compound in the Libyan city that left four Americans dead.
Simmons was also charged in an apparently unrelated scam in which he convinced someone to make a $125,000 real estate investment with him, then simply used the money for personal expenses.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Simmons’ claims at one point got him a post as an intelligence advisor to senior military personnel, which included an overseas deployment.
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CIA spokesman Dean Boyd said in a brief statement that the agency was “working closely with the Justice Department on this matter”.
