Rep. John Duncan (R-TN) would like to abolish the program that he said had about 4,000 air marshals in 2009 and averaged a total 4.2 arrests per year during the first seven years. He calls the program “the most needless, useless agency.” Air marshals themselves were arrested 148 times from November 2002 to February 2012, according to a report by ProPublica based on TSA documents. Air marshals were also charged with more than 5,000 cases of misconduct during that period, including 1,200 cases of lost equipment and 950 missed flights, the report said.

“The problem with this agency is that the air marshals have no real job to do. … They sleep in five-star hotels and run wild like college kids on spring break once they get off duty overseas.”
— Jay Lacson, former air marshal

The I-Team has details of these three federal air marshals working out of the Chicago field office, suspended after authorities say the men were contacting prostitutes while on-duty, using phones provided by taxpayers and compromising the public they are paid to protect.

"You basically had people who were using their time as a federal air marshal, using federal assets for their own salacious personal gains that involved potential pornography - acting as if they were filming pornography shows and using their federal assets, their badge and their access on planes to do some things that they should not have been doing," said Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah.

In Washington, the I-Team has learned that House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Chaffetz will highlight misconduct in Chicago's federal air marshal office.

A former federal air marshal tells the I-Team that three marshals in Chicago were found to have been involved with prostitutes and using their government-issued cellphones while on-duty to set up the meetings.

All three men were put on unpaid leave. One of the three marshals resigned.

"They have got to get a grip on this because these people are entrusted with weapons on planes to protect the public and heaven forbid something happen, they A) have to be on that flight, got to be sober and got to be ready for any instance that arises and some of them have been using this for this for these salacious personal gains that are totally unacceptable," Chaffetz said.

TSA officials, who oversee the Federal Air Marshal Service, said in a statement: "TSA demands the highest standards of integrity and professionalism from its employees. When criminal behavior or misconduct is substantiated, TSA vigorously holds its employees accountable."

Federal sources close to the investigation tell the I-Team that the three Chicago air marshals posed as pornographers looking for women to star in their movies; that they used "Craigslist Backpage Adult Services" to communicate with the women via their government-issued cellphones and then recorded their sexual encounters on the agency cellphones.

An investigation started when supervisors looked into a worker's compensation claim filed by one of the air marshals and confiscated his phone, leading to the two other air marshals in the Chicago office.

The I-Team left numerous messages and sent emails to the three air marshals. They have not responded.

Congressman Chaffetz says the investigation has spread beyond Chicago.

"There is more than one incident, some of this is with prosecutors, some will be charges, some of it is in the investigative phase. I wish I could tell you it was an isolated incident but it's not necessarily an isolated incident and that's the concern," Chaffetz said.

Since its inception, the air marshal agency has been plagued with embarrassing charges of misconduct.