Wayne Shelby Simmons (born 1953 or 1954)[1] is a former Fox News guest commentator who claimed to be an ex-CIA agent. He was exposed as a fraud by actual CIA analyst Kent Clizbe, and convicted of multiple counts of fraud and other violations in 2016.
Wayne Simmons | |
|---|---|
| Employer | Fox News (previously) |
| Notable work | l |
Early life and education edit
Raised in Maryland, Simmons was the son of an FBI fingerprints expert and Wayne Allison Simmons, a distinguished naval officer who was at Pearl Harbor. His sister was a senior official in the Navy and then under George W. Bush in the Defense Department.[1][2] He attended Jacksonville State University.[1]
Career and claims edit
Simmons claimed to have enlisted in the Navy in 1973, received a medical discharge, and then trained in Alaska and worked for the CIA for 27 years, specializing in organizational sabotage, and retired in 2000.[1][2] After being recruited to Fox in 2001 and making his first appearance on the Geraldo Rivera Show,[1] he was a guest on Fox News in 2002, and by 2004 had become a regular guest commentator and was recruited into the Pentagon military analyst program in support of American intervention in Iraq; he was present when President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act in 2006. In 2012 co-wrote The Natanz Directive, a novel he claimed to be partially autobiographical, about a retired CIA operative recalled to duty.[1][2] In 2012, although the government was already aware of his false claims, he became a member of the Citizens' Commission on Benghazi.[1][2] He referred to President Obama as a "boy king" and Nancy Pelosi as a "pathological liar",[1] and in February 2015 claimed there were "at least 19 paramilitary Muslim training facilities in the United States".[2] He was not paid by Fox;[1][2] during his years as a news commentator, he started Simmons Air, a commuter airline, and after its failure worked in 2008 for military contractor BAE Systems but performed unsatisfactorily during training as a Human Terrain System Team leader, was rejected for a position with Triple Canopy in 2009 after a background check by the State Department revealed that he did not have the CIA experience he claimed, and had to return in 2010 from a contractor post in Afghanistan after revocation of his temporary security clearance.[1][2]
According to prosecutors, instead of the CIA Simmons had actually worked at a carpeting company, as a head waiter at a nightclub and a manager at an adult entertainment hot tub business, operated limousine and AIDS testing businesses, run an illegal gambling operation out of his home, and also played semi-professionally for the Baltimore Eagles and professionally as a defensive back for the New Orleans Saints for a few months in summer 1978.[1][2] He was arrested in 2007 for attacking a Pakistani cab driver whom he falsely identified as having a bomb,[1][2] and has several convictions for drunk driving[2] and two previous federal firearms convictions.[3]
Charges and conviction edit
Kent Clizbe, who had actually worked for the CIA and as an intelligence consultant with a specialty in deception detection, saw through Simmons' story when he met him in 2010.[1][2] His alerting his former boss, as well as the suspicions of other former CIA agents, led to an investigation, although in 2013 the Washington Times decided not to pursue a story on the issue[1] because Simmons had been granted a security clearance and sent to Afghanistan.[2] In October 2015, Simmons was arrested by the FBI and charged with fraud, including using fraud to obtain employment with military contractors and defrauding a woman of $125,000.[1][2] He pleaded guilty to major fraud against the U.S. government, wire fraud, and a firearms offense,[3] while maintaining that he had worked for the CIA;[4] on July 15, 2016, he was convicted and sentenced to 33 months in prison plus three years of supervised release, restitution, and forfeiture of criminal proceeds.[3]
Personal life edit
Simmons lived in Annapolis. His wife, Corinne, a military hospital administrator, died in 2012; they had two children, one of whom is in the Secret Service.[1][2]
References edit
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p French, Alex (March 1, 2016). "The Plot to Take Down a Fox News Analyst: For years, Wayne Simmons claimed to be a former C.I.A. operative. Then one ex-spook got suspicious". The New York Times. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Wiedemann, Reeves (January 26, 2016). "The Rise and Fall of a Fox News Fraud". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
- ^ a b c Simpson, Ian (July 15, 2016). "Former Fox News commentator sentenced to prison for faking CIA ties". Reuters. Retrieved December 19, 2020.
- ^ Barakat, Matthew (April 29, 2016). "TV pundit who claimed CIA ties pleads guilty to fraud". Associated Press. Retrieved December 19, 2020.