Garrison Courtney had every reason to feel confident as he strode into a meeting with

Lieutenant General Robert Otto, the Air Force's top Intelligence Officer.

It was the fall of 2015 and by that point 39-year- old Courtney had practiced and polished his

spiel over the course of dozens of meetings just like this one. He had

successfully convinced many high-level government officials and defense

contractors to work with him,

and he was hoping to add the general to the growing ranks of his business partners.

After entering a secure facility and patting down the general to check for covert listening devices, Courtney made his pitch.

He told the general that he was an off-the-books operative for the CIA and he had a proposition. Courtney and his organization were going under cover at various defense contractor companies to prevent potential intel leaks before they happened,

and he wanted the Air Force to get on board. Courtney listed names

of other powerful people who were already on board. It was all designed to showcase how

legitimate the operation was. But the general felt something was off. Fishy is the word he used.

After the meeting concluded, General Otto made some calls to find out of this Garrison Courtney guy was really who he said he was.

The next time the general met with Courtney, he was wearing a wire, as part of an FBI investigation.

This is opportunist, an original podcast from Podcast 1. You're listening to a story told in one episode called Garrison

Courtney, Fake CIA Spy. I'm Sarah James McLaughlin. On this episode we'll do a deep dive on Garrison Courtney, a one-time rising star in the secret

of Washington DC National Security world who saw an opportunity to make a killing in the defense

contractor industry by duping dozens of government officials

and to believing he was an undercover CIA operative in charge of a top secret task force. You're not going to be here. Looking back through Garrison Courtney's past, it seems that he was a charmer from a young age.

According to his ex-wife, he confided that he had a, quote, very rough upbringing, unquote, in Great Falls, Montana,

and his struggles as a youth may have contributed to a drive to make himself seem as likable as possible.

At least that's what reporter Justin Rorlich thinks after researching

...