FBI Agent Denies Committing Perjury

An FBI agent, Mr David Rupert, denied at the Special Criminal Court yesterday that he had committed perjury in the trial of alleged "Real IRA" leader, Mr Michael Mc Kevitt.

Mr McKevitt's counsel, Mr Hugh Hartnett SC, put it to Mr Rupert that the account to the court of his first meeting with an FBI agent, Mr Ed Buckley, in Chicago was different from one he gave to Chicago journalists recently.

Mr Hartnett suggested that Mr Rupert told lies about the Chicago meeting, but Mr Rupert replied: "That's absolutely false."

Mr Hartnett said: "This is just one aspect of the perjury that you have committed before this court over the last three weeks", and  Mr
Rupert replied: "Absolutely not. Defence counsel is grasping for ground and he is wrong." 

Earlier the court heard an extract from a taped interview that  Mr Rupert gave to two Chicago journalists in connection with a possible book about his life and his work infiltrating dissident republican groups in Ireland and the US.

In the extract Mr Rupert is heard to tell the journalists that when he first met Mr Buckley in his office in Chicago, the agent "threw down" pictures on the desk showed Mr Rupert in the company of two prominent Irish republicans, Mr Joe O'Neill and Mr Vincent Murray.

Mr Rupert had earlier told the court that he made a statement to gardaí in 2001 in which he said that Agent Buckley had the pictures with him, but in March of the same year he corrected the statement and said he was unsure if Agent Buckley had the pictures or not.

On the tape Mr Rupert is heard to tell the journalists that "they couldn't find the pictures" and he adds that he may have made a mistake.

Mr Rupert earlier denied a suggestion by Mr Hartnett that he was "a fantasist" who imagined himself in dramatic or important stories. He also said that he could not recall, when he visited Ireland in September 1994, after agreeing to work for the FBI, if he had told this to Mr O'Neill and Mr Murray.

It was the 16th day of the trial of Mr McKevitt (53), of Beech Park, Blackrock, Dundalk, Co Louth, who denies membership of an unlawful organisation styling itself the Irish Republican Army, otherwise the IRA, otherwise Oglaigh na hEireann between August 29th, 1999, and March 28th, 2001. He also denies directing the activities of the same organisation.

Mr Rupert (51), a former trucking company boss and bar-owner, has told the court he infiltrated dissident republican groups for the FBI and the British Security Service (MI5).

The court has heard he was paid $ 1.25 million for his work.

The trial continues on Monday.