A US congressman pretends to be an undercover FBI agent, but ends up in jail for completely different truths

The story of “The Wrong FBI Agent” begins on November 14, 2020. Two Secret Service agents were working in Washington when they noticed a police car with a strange license plate. The owner of the car—later revealed to be Sterling DeVion Carter—was wearing an FBI uniform. To ordinary people, this seemed like nothing to worry about, but the two agents weren’t entirely convinced and reported the incident to the Secret Service.

When five officers approached him minutes later, Carter said he was from the “FBI,” according to a police report. When they asked for ID, he said he didn’t have one, then turned on his flashing lights and drove away. An officer tried to chase him down, but to no avail.

Research

Several services were used to investigate the case, but ultimately it was an investigator, Special Agent A. arranged to find Carter. Pascual. He was able to track down where the suspect had purchased his fake FBI uniform. With the owner’s help, Pascual was able to narrow the 399 customers who bought the T-shirt over the past three years to 21 who live near Washington. Only one of them matched the description of the officers who saw him: Sterling Carter.

Pascual found Carter’s identity another way: by contacting a website that makes custom license plates. When Pascual gave them the fake license plate number, it was revealed that it was in Carter’s name.

$80,000

It wasn’t until three weeks after the police chase that the Secret Service discovered Carter was a congressional staffer with security access to the Capitol. He wasn’t arrested until a few weeks later in his parents’ home state of Georgia. He admitted in court that he apparently illegally carried the firearm. Federal prosecutors dropped charges of “impersonating a law enforcement officer,” and Carter escaped prison.

Yet Carter was sentenced to nine months in federal prison for theft of public funds. In an initial investigation into his “adventure” as an FBI agent, Carter, who oversaw the salaries of congressional staffers, also disclosed that he had raised $80,000 over several months.