Matthew Bissonnette, a former Navy SEAL involved in the 2011 raid that killed Osama Bin Laden, kept a photo of the slain Al Qaeda leader’s corpse on a hard-drive that he has since surrendered to federal investigators, multiple sources familiar with the matter told The Intercept.
Mr. Bissonnette, who authored a best-selling book on the raid, “No Easy Day,” had been the subject of a Department of Justice probe launched in the wake of allegations he had unlawfully possessed classified material, The Intercept reported on Monday.
Yet while an attorney for the now retired SEAL told the news site that the Justice Department ended that investigation last August, a separate inquiry led by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service has since widened after authorities scoured a hard-drive handed over by Mr. Bissonnette which contained an unauthorized photo of Bin Laden’s body, two people with knowledge of the probe told The Intercept.
Investigators received a copy of the retired SEAL’s hard-drive after his attorney arranged a deal in which Mr. Bissonnette would not be prosecuted for unlawfully possessing classified material in exchange for voluntarily giving up the data, the two sources said on condition of anonymity.
The lawyer, Robert Luskin, told The Intercept that the Mr. Bissonnette had agreed to give the government a portion of the millions in proceeds he received for authoring his tell-all book on the raid as well.
While combing the hard-drive, however, investigators discovered records concerning business deals Mr. Bissonnette had arranged while on active duty that were not covered by the non-prosecution agreement, which subsequently led to NCIS widening its investigation, The Intercept reported.
That probe, the sources said, has since shifted its focus toward any business ventures the SEAL may have had as a consultant with companies that supply military equipment, including gear used by the elite squad that killed Bin Laden.
Element Group, a Virginia Beach-based consulting firm that was started by Mr. Bissonnette, cut deals with at least one Department of Defense contractor that provided equipment to SEAL Team 6, several former members of the group told The Intercept.
Ed Buice, a spokesman for the NCIS, told The Intercept that the agency couldn’t comment on any ongoing investigations. Mr. Luskin, Mr. Bissonnette’s lawyer, would not comment on the status of any current probe or whether his client kept a picture of Bin Laden’s corpse, the site added.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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