# Confidential Informant **Aliases:** CI **Entity class:** Law-enforcement human-source designation ## Definition Under the Attorney General's 2001 guidelines, a **confidential informant** is an individual who provides useful and credible information to a Department of Justice law-enforcement agency about felonious criminal activity and from whom the agency expects or intends to obtain additional useful and credible information. The guidelines expressly state that a CI is not a United States Government employee. In FY2013, GAO reported that eight DOJ and DHS components used more than 16,000 confidential informants in criminal investigations. ## Relationships - **broader category:** [[wiki/Nonemployee Operational Participant|Nonemployee Operational Participant]]. - **related FBI category:** [[wiki/Confidential Human Source|Confidential Human Source]]. - **related categories:** [[wiki/Cooperating Defendant or Witness|Cooperating Defendant or Witness]] and [[wiki/Source of Information (Law Enforcement)|Source of Information]]. - **oversight:** [[wiki/Government Accountability Office|GAO]]. ## Sources / Provenance - [DOJ — Confidential Informant Guidelines, January 8, 2001](https://www.justice.gov/archives/ag/attorney-general-renos-confidential-informant-guidelines-january-8-2001) - [GAO — Confidential Informants, September 15, 2015](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-15-807)