Fox News ‘terrorism expert’ given prison sentence after falsely claiming to have been a CIA agent
A man who has appeared on Fox News as a guest “terrorism analyst” was sentenced to 33 months in prison on Friday on charges that he fraudulently claimed to have been a CIA agent for decades, US prosecutors said.
Wayne Simmons, 62, of Annapolis, Maryland, was sentenced in US District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, the US Attorney’s Office said in a statement.
Simmons has no military or intelligence background, or any skills relevant to the positions he attained
“Wayne Simmons is a fraud. Simmons has no military or intelligence background, or any skills relevant to the positions he attained through his fraud,” said Dana Boente, US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
US District Judge T.S. Ellis III also sentenced Simmons to serve three years of supervised release, to forfeit two firearms and US$176,000 in criminal proceeds and to pay restitution.
Simmons had appeared on Fox News, a unit of 21st Century Fox and the top-ranked US cable television news network, as an unpaid guest analyst on terrorism since 2002.
A grand jury indicted him in October for portraying himself as an “Outside Paramilitary Special Operations Officer” for the Central Intelligence Agency from 1973 to 2000.