Witness: Grimm was 'carrying on like a madman'

The New Yorker has published a lengthy piece on freshman New York Rep. Michael Grimm's controversial tenure as an FBI agent.

Most of Evan Ratliff's story raises questions about the tactics used when working with undercover informants. But included toward the end of the piece is a troubling anecdote from a night club incident in 1999, when Grimm got into an altercation with the husband of a woman he was with.

Shortly after midnight, Michael Grimm walked in with a woman of Caribbean descent.  The woman's estranged husband, who is also of Caribbean descent, was at the club and confronted Grimm.  The two men began to argue.  Williams escorted Grimm away.  Williams recalled, "He said to me, 'Thanks a lot man, he don't know who he's f***ing with.'  Then he said something frightening.  'I'll f***in' make him disappear where nobody will find him.'"  (Grimm calls this allegation "insane.")  After that, Williams said, Grimm and the woman left, as did the husband.

Around 2:30 A.M., there was a commotion on the dance floor.  According to Williams, somebody was shouting, "He's got a gun!"  Following a crowd into the club's garage, Williams discovered that Grimm and the husband had returned, and Grimm was holding a weapon.  Grimm was "carrying on like a madman," Williams said.  "He's screaming, 'I'm gonna f***ing kill him.  So I said to him, 'Who are you?' He put the gun back in his waist and said, 'I'm a f***ing FBI agent, ain't nobody gonna threaten me.'  (Grimm said he only moved his gun from an ankle holster to his waistband.)  The bouncer at the front door told Williams that, when he patted Grimm down and found his gun, Grimm had showed his FBI identification.  The bouncer then let him pass through the club's metal detector.

The story also says that Grimm later told police he had been assaulted by the estranged husband and his friends.  

Williams said that Grimm took command of the scene and refused to let the remaining patrons and employees leave.  "Everybody get up against the f***ing wall," Williams recalled him saying.  "The FBI is in control."  Then Grimm, who apparently wanted to find the man with whom he'd had the original altercation, said something that Williams said he'll never forget:  "All the white people get out of here."

As for the alleged threat to kill people, Grimm said, "That's not my personality. I don't need to speak that way."

 

 

Source: http://www.politico.com/blogs/davidcatanese/0411/Witness_Grimm_was_.html

Eni F. H. Faleomavaega Eric Cantor Erik Paulsen F. James Sensenbrenner Jr