Defense attorneys for Anthony Pellicano have asked prosecutors for documents they say will show that authorities first investigated the Hollywood private eye for allegedly audiotaping an FBI agent.
The government has said the long-running probe stemmed from a threat against a Los Angeles Times reporter investigating organized crime in Hollywood. But months before the threat, agents went to the sleuth's office to search for a recording of law enforcement personnel, according to a federal subpoena.
The defense requests signal an effort to shift the focus of the case from celebrity wiretapping to claims of government misconduct. In a 2005 letter to the prosecution, recently reviewed by The Times, the attorney for one of Pellicano's co-defendants said the alleged tape was of an Internet entrepreneur offering FBI Special Agent Dale Walker Jr. $30,000 to investigate a business opponent.
The FBI investigated the bribe allegation and found it to be "baseless," according to Special Assistant Director in Charge Steven Tidwell of the Los Angeles office. In FBI reports on the probe recently reviewed by The Times, Walker said he recalled as "vaguely familiar" conversations about "having government agents investigate, prosecute and intimidate" the entrepreneur's rival.
"If such statements took place, Walker can not recall in what context such statements could have been made or who made such statements," the FBI report says. "It is possible that Walker ... made such statements in the context of ... telephone conversations."
The FBI report added: "To the best of Special Agent Walker's recollection, Walker does not recall a discussion of a payment to anyone to include a $30,000 payment. If someone told [him] that someone was going to get paid and/or receive this or any other amount, Walker does not recall this."
The Internet entrepreneur, Ami Shafrir, denied offering a bribe, but said the alleged recordings of his conversations with Walker spurred the Pellicano investigation.
"The tape of Dale Walker talking to me is what opened the whole can of worms on this Pellicano thing," Shafrir said. "But we never had a conversation even insinuating anything about a bribe."
Pellicano is due to stand trial in August on charges of illegally tapping into confidential communications and law enforcement databases for information to provide his Hollywood and legal clients the upper hand in courtroom battles.
