“This from a “LEAD” investigator?!?!?!”
Proper use of quotes, since it appears that she was the case agents involved in following up leads ... not in any sense of her being the team leader.
“Q. But you were the case agent by 8 June. Correct?
A. Right.
Q. So he wouldn’t have gone to interview him without you directing him to do it. Correct?
A. I don’t direct all the agents to do it. But yeah, I write the leads. And it is divvied up from there by supervisors.
“
Q. Special Agent Mannle, what is your current role in this investigation?
A. I am the case agent.
Q. Describe what a case agent -- what they are responsible for.
A. Basically, the case agent writes all the reports. We call them report of investigation. But they are the interims. What it does is it takes all the information and summarizes all the investigative actions that are conducted in the field so it can be read in one cohesive document. And there is one responsibility for major report writing on a case. And then also the case agent coordinates the efforts as much as possible under the supervision of seniors of all agents involved, especially in this case. We had agents in Iraq working, California, and then later on the east coast. Actually, agents all over the United States were on it. So coordinating those efforts and informing them of the case and making sure they are asking the questions that we needed to be asked on a case when they were not, themselves, as familiar with it.
I would identify any leads that would need to be done in the case. And I would write and forward those leads to the agents that we need to conduct those. I created the investigative plan, attended all meetings on the case, briefed the case daily to our seniors, and conducted all briefings at the government level on this case, and kept the agents that were working on it informed of each other's products when they were doing new interviews so that they were up to speed on the information so they could ask better questions, if you will.
I also ensured that the evidence would be sent to Camp Pendleton to our field office there as part of the taskforce that was formulated and attended all the meetings for that.
Q. When did you assume the role of case agent? Do you remember the date?
A. That decision was actually made when I arrived back to the U.S. from Iraq. That was about not quite a month later, mid-April.
Q. Mid-April 2006?
A. Right. What they did do, I should note to give my co-case agent credit here, Agent Tony Blane out of Camp Pendleton was designated as the point of contact from Camp Pendleton. And we worked together as co-case agents. But most of the responsibilities were with me at our headquarters in terms of the writing and briefing of the case.