Report Criticizes Ex-ATF Chief

The ATF building, under construction in Northeast Washington, is at least $19 million over its original $120 million budget and its opening has been delayed until next year.

Truscott was particularly fixated on adding "unnecessary amenities" to the director's suite and the building's gymnasium, the inspector general's report said, including millwork estimated at $283,000. Agency e-mails show that Truscott requested for his office a 42-inch flat-screen television set that could be hidden when not in use. He wanted his personal bathroom to include a "[t]elephone, TV flat panel and radio speakers to listen/view news," a quartzite tile floor to match the floor in the building atrium, a bench with a water-resistant wood seat, a tile wall "in horizontal straight stacked layout vs brick," and sconces.

Truscott also suggested buying $100,000 in new equipment for the building's gym, and pushed to build a $156,000 garage to house a single truck owned by the ATF's National Response Team at Fort A.P. Hill.

"Truscott devoted an excessive amount of time to the redesign and upgrading of his suite and the gym, immersing himself in details at a level that we would not expect of the Director of a major law enforcement agency," the report said.

Furthermore, after being warned by congressional staff members to stop spending operational money on the building project, other ATF managers took the lead in scaling back many of the changes Truscott ordered, the report says. "Without those modifications Truscott's design changes would have had a substantially more severe impact on ATF's operational budget," the report says.

Some of Fine's harshest conclusions come in connection with an ATF school documentary by Truscott's nephew, who lives in the Philadelphia area and is described by his uncle as "a young man who is passionate about everything he does -- particularly as it related to his personal interests of videography and his career aspirations of following in my footsteps as a career public servant in the field of law enforcement."

The report said that over 10 months, Truscott's nephew peppered ATF employees in Philadelphia and Washington with e-mails and time-consuming requests, obtaining copies of stock ATF video footage, interviewing ATF officials -- including his uncle -- and using agency video equipment. "Significant ATF resources were used to assist Truscott's nephew on a high school project," the report says.

The nephew submitted his project to his teacher in April 2005, and included the credit, "Thank you for giving me this amazing opportunity Uncle Carl."

The report says he received an A.