According to court documents obtained by NBC News, the Environmental Protection Agency’s highest-paid employee also doubled as its laziest and most dishonest. Climate-change expert John Beale, who will be sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to bilking taxpayers out of $1 million, shirked responsibilities by telling co-workers that he was frequently unavailable for agency work because of his covert life in another, more secretive government agency: Beale was a CIA agent. Except that he wasn’t. While acknowledging his guilt, Beale’s lawyer helpfully explained his client’s need “to manipulate those around him through the fabrication of grandiose narratives … [which] are fueled by his insecurities.”
