confidential informant

[ kon-fi-den-shuhl in-fawr-muhnt ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

a person who works undercover for law enforcement to gather information about felonious criminal activities: some confidential informants are criminals themselves, hired to work undercover in exchange for leniency or exoneration: : CI
We’re told that this elusive drug lord was finally taken down thanks largely to a confidential informant, whose identity remains fiercely protected.

First recorded in 1940–45

It was the first time she spoke about working as a confidential informant with anyone other than her OSI agents.

It may be great enough to warrant techniques like the confidential informant program.

She left the office, she says, as a confidential informant recruited to spy and report on her peers.

But it does not appear to have used an undercover agent or confidential informant to gather “human intelligence” about him.

The bureau, however, dropped the confidential informant, Emad Salem, who had insinuated himself into the plot.

April 25, 2024firkin

[fur-kin ]

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