Doyle shared FBI experience in videotaped interview

Not sharing information that shouldn't be shared a 'cornerstone' of his career, former agent tells interviewers

Jeffrey Schweers
Tallahassee Democrat
Josh Doyle, new executive director of the Florida Bar

Josh Doyle skimmed over the most recent case he supervised as an agent with the FBI and his role as coordinator of a public corruption task force during a videotaped interview with the Florida Bar’s search committee for an executive director.

The case he described — and went into in greater detail on his application — bears plenty of similarities with a recently concluded FBI probe into the business dealings of the Tallahassee Community Redevelopment Agency and several well-known local business people.

Doyle’s name is across the top of one of two subpoenas delivered a month ago to the public records custodians for both the city and the CRA. 

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In a recent interview with the Tallahassee Democrat, Doyle, 38, repeatedly declined to talk about his duties as a former FBI field officer. He began his new job as executive director of the Florida Bar on July 17.

But during the April 17 interview at the Gray Robinson law offices in Orlando with search committee members, Doyle used his recent experiences with the FBI to highlight some of his leadership and management skills.

“I am coordinator of a task force we set up to focus on public corruption,” he said, referring to the North Florida Public Corruption Task Force. “As such I’m in charge of identifying other partner agency officials who want to come work on our task force and responsible for convincing them to do so.”

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As a case agent on “significant investigations,” Doyle said, it was his job to assemble teams of people who had the best skills to perform the tasks needed.

“I have a good eye for talent,” he said.

He told the search committee he was “concluding a case now in which we have an investigative team of 25 people … that includes agents, undercover employees, focus on technology to gather evidence, and analysts.”

The operation had a $500,000 budget he had to justify to superiors. He also knew the dollars spent would be subject to audits.

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On the application, Doyle said the investigation deployed three covert vehicles, an airplane, audio and video surveillance technologies, and the use of techniques that hadn’t been employed in decades.

Doyle did offer one tantalizing tidbit, following a question about secrets he's had to keep. He said he was probably the only person at the table whose undergone a vigorous FBI background check and maintained top secret security clearance.

"One thing I think i'm well-suited to do is keep confidences, not engage in gossip, not share information that shouldn't be shared," Doyle said. "It has been the cornerstone of everything I've done, whether it be lobbying or whether it be my current job where I've been hand-selected to handle the most high profile cases in this country, subjects who would be instantly recognizable to everybody in this room."