Jason James has spent more than twenty years serving his country, first in the Navy and later as a federal special agent and 1811 criminal investigator. His career has taken him from aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf to major federal investigations involving fraud, corruption, and homicide. Over the years, he worked for inspector generals at the General Services Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Navy, building a career centered on complex criminal investigations and public service. The case that left the deepest impact on him was the Reta Mays case. Mays, a nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, murdered seven veterans by injecting them with insulin they never needed. Two of the victims were World War II veterans, including one who survived the Battle of the Bulge. For Jason, the investigation was more than another assignment—it was a reminder of how vulnerable people can be, even in places meant to care for them.

Jason’s military career started unexpectedly after a chance meeting with a recruiter at a Taco Bell in Lompoc, California. After scoring in the 90th percentile on the ASVAB, he entered the Navy’s Advanced Electronics/Computer Field program and selected one of the most demanding specialties available: ET Communications. Fourteen months later, he was stationed aboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) in the Persian Gulf. On September 11, 2001, Jason was sitting in an indoctrination class aboard the carrier when word spread that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. The Enterprise immediately turned around and headed back through the Strait of Hormuz. Before returning home to Norfolk, the ship participated in the opening phase of operations in Afghanistan, launching strikes that delivered more than a million pounds of ordnance.

After a decade in the Navy, Jason used the GI Bill to earn a degree in Computer Information Systems before entering federal law enforcement. In the conversation, he explains how veteran preference hiring, military spouse programs, and federal pathways programs help former service members transition into government careers. He also breaks down the distinction between the term “special agent” and the official 1811 criminal investigator designation used throughout the federal system. Jason explains what life is actually like at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), where new investigators complete extensive training in firearms, legal procedures, surveillance, interviewing, and case development. Rather than the glamorous version people see in movies, he describes the experience as mentally demanding, detail-oriented, and heavily focused on building cases that can survive courtroom scrutiny.

The discussion moves between technical investigative work and the personal realities behind it. Jason explains how qui tam lawsuits under the False Claims Act allow whistleblowers to expose fraud against the government. In one example, a delivery driver’s observations eventually led to a settlement worth hundreds of millions of dollars, along with a significant financial reward for the whistleblower. He also talks about procurement fraud investigations and national security concerns involving government contractors and foreign intelligence efforts. One case involved attempts to compromise Department of Defense supply chains through malware-infected hardware tied to a Chinese intelligence operation. Jason describes a system where massive government spending creates endless opportunities for fraud, waste, and abuse, making oversight investigations more important than ever.

At the center of the conversation is the Reta Mays case itself. Doctors at the Clarksburg VA Medical Center began noticing a disturbing pattern when multiple patients suffered unexplained hypoglycemic episodes over an eleven-month period. Investigators initially faced resistance from prosecutors, limiting early access to search warrants and slowing parts of the investigation. Despite those setbacks, the team continued piecing together evidence through prison phone recordings, undercover operations, and consensual monitoring.

A major breakthrough came from recorded prison calls involving Mays’ husband, who was serving time in a West Virginia prison on child pornography charges. Because his calls were automatically recorded, investigators were able to gather valuable circumstantial evidence that helped strengthen the case. The forensic side of the investigation became critical as well. Renowned forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden led the exhumations of several victims and discovered insulin deposits embedded layer by layer within their tissue. Those findings helped scientifically confirm what investigators had already begun to suspect. The confession eventually came during an interrogation in which investigators used a psychological strategy centered on the idea of mercy rather than cruelty. Instead of portraying Mays as a monster, they suggested she may have believed she was ending suffering. Mays accepted the “angel of mercy” framing and confessed to the killings. She later received seven consecutive life sentences plus an additional twenty years in prison.

Toward the end of the conversation, Jason reflects on the emotional toll that comes with this kind of work. He explains how compartmentalization became essential in order to keep investigations from affecting his personal life. Years of working public corruption and fraud cases also changed the way he views Washington and the federal system as a whole. Even after witnessing the darker side of government, criminal behavior, and institutional failure, Jason still believes deeply in the country he served. The conversation ultimately shifts toward faith, perspective, and learning how to leave the weight of the job behind at the end of the day.

Topics Discussed

• Growing up in Lompoc, California, in a single-mom household

• Joining the US Navy at 19 after a chance encounter with a recruiter

• USS Enterprise (CVN-65) on 9/11 in the Persian Gulf

• Carrier operations: C-2 Greyhound COD landings, the 08 level, dropping ordnance on Afghanistan

• The Navy's Advanced Electronics/Computer Field (AECF) and ET communications strand

• The military to civilian transition for federal hiring: GI Bill, veteran preference, Pathways Program, military spouse hires

• What an 1811 criminal investigator actually is, and which agencies have them

• FLETC, CITP, and IGCA training

• How a federal agent's first cases get built: government purchase card fraud and procurement fraud

• An IT supply-chain case with a Chinese intelligence officer

• Qui tam whistleblower lawsuits, treble damages, and the False Claims Act

• How interrogation theming actually works in federal investigations

• Law enforcement, the George Floyd era, and how scrutiny landed inside the agencies

• The Reta Mays case: twenty deaths, seven consecutive life sentences, and how investigators cracked the confession

• Public corruption inside Washington DC and its effect on a federal agent's worldview
  

People Mentioned

Reta Mays

A nursing assistant at the Louis A. Johnson VA Medical Center in Clarksburg, West Virginia, who murdered seven veterans by injecting them with insulin. Former Army medic and corrections officer in the National Guard. Sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences plus twenty years.

Dr. Michael Baden

Forensic pathologist and the former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City. Author of Dead Reckoning, the book Jason had read years before working with him on the Reta Mays case. Led the exhumations of the victims and found insulin in the skin.

Andrew "Andy" Bustamante

Former CIA officer and public-sector commentator, whom Jason and Justin discuss in the context of information literacy and using government death-projection data to understand the actual scale of Covid mortality.

Concepts Discussed

The 1811 Criminal Investigator

The federal job series for special agents whose primary duties are the investigation, apprehension, and detention of individuals who break federal law. Distinct from "special agent" as an agency job title. Carries statutory power of arrest, executes search warrants, enforces Title 18 of the US Code, and is covered under the special 6(c) federal retirement system.

Qui Tam and the False Claims Act

A federal whistleblower mechanism that allows a private citizen to sue an organization committing fraud against the US government. If the case is successful, the relator recovers a portion of the treble damages. The episode walks through a real case in which a parcel-delivery driver's tip resulted in a settlement of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Theming in Interrogation

A federal interview-and-interrogation technique in which the agent gives the subject a face-saving narrative that still constitutes admission to the crime. Both branches of the choice question lead to the same place. In the Reta Mays case, the theme was: are you a monster, or were you ending suffering? Reta chose the second framing and confessed.

Circumstantial vs. Direct Evidence

Direct evidence is fingerprints, DNA, video, and witness testimony of the act itself. Circumstantial evidence is the surrounding facts that make a crime likely. Reta Mays' prosecution was almost entirely circumstantial: the only direct evidence came from exhumations and the eventual confession.

The Cost of the Work

What it does to a person's psyche and worldview to spend years exposed to the worst of human behavior. Jason talks about coming in as a "Navy church boy" and what years of fraud, public corruption, and the Reta Mays case did to the way he sees the world. Compartmentalization, spirituality, and surrender as the practices that keep him whole.

Books Mentioned

Dead Reckoning by Dr. Michael Baden

What it does to a person's psyche and worldview to spend years exposed to the worst of human behavior. Jason talks about coming in as a "Navy church boy" and what years of fraud, public corruption, and the Reta Mays case did to the way he sees the world. Compartmentalization, spirituality, and surrender as the practices that keep him whole.