Wayne Simmons, a recurring guest on Fox News who claimed to have 27 years of experience with the CIA, was arrested Thursday after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he lied about his service.
Simmons is accused of falsely claiming that he worked as an "outside paramilitary special operations officer" for the CIA from 1973 to 2000. On Fox, this was often shortened to "former CIA operative."
He was also indicted for using that false claim to gain government security clearances and an assignment as a defense contractor, where he advised senior military personnel overseas.
Simmons made his initial appearance in court on Thursday afternoon. If convicted, he could face up to 35 years in prison on charges of major fraud against the United States, wire fraud, and making false statements to the government.
Simmons is a familiar face to Fox News viewers. After the arrest was announced on Thursday, Fox News spokesperson Irena Briganti told CNN that he "was never a contributor for Fox News," and that he appeared on the network only as a non-paid guest. She therefore declined to comment further.
Uh...well as it turns out Simmons has a website on which he claims that "has been a Terrorism Analyst for the Fox News Channel since 2002."
Can you say "Awkward?"
But let's be fair. After all just about everybody on Fox News is fake.
There are fake terrorism analysts.
Fake psychiatrists.
Fake liberals.
Fake black people.
And of course tons of fake journalists.
So if you are surprised by this then you simply have no been paying attention.