18 USC: 912 FALSE PERSONATION

Justin Rood, at TPM Muckraker, points to a story in the WaPo which reports that advance workers for the White House impersonated reporters, in a prelude to a visit from President Bush. That story quotes White House spokesman Ken Lisaius saying, "The individuals involved will be verbally reprimanded." The WaPo story quotes Elaine Akins, the Mississippian resident visited by Bush. "They didn't show any cards or anything," Akins said. "They just came up and said they were with the media, and then they said they were with Fox. They just talked to us and asked us about rebuilding our house. Then, after everything was over with, they approached us and they were laughing, and they said: 'You know, we really weren't with Fox. We're government, Secret Service men.' " In his TPM Muckraker account, Rood notes that impersonating Secret Service agents is against the law. * CHAPTER 43 - FALSE PERSONATION U.S. Code as of: 01/06/03 Section 912. Officer or employee of the United States Whoever falsely assumes or pretends to be an officer or employee acting under the authority of the United States or any department, agency or officer thereof, and acts as such, or in such pretended character demands or obtains any money, paper, document, or thing of value, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.