John Schoolmeister

John Schoolmeister was employed by the U.S. Customs during the late 1970s, working as the Branch Chief of Engineering Services, where his main task was to support field patrol offices with high technology equipment. Schoolmeister knew Peter Videnieks from their time at Customs, describing him as a "by-the-book" contracting officer who later moved to the DOJ. Schoolmeister stated that Videnieks had some dealings with Hadron, Inc., while at Customs, handling two of Hadron's contracts, though he could not recall which specific ones. He believed that Dominic Laiti, president of Hadron, would almost certainly have met Videnieks, as Laiti "met everyone in government." Schoolmeister could not recall any specific significant event occurring between Hadron and Videnieks. The Special Counsel's investigation found that while Videnieks did supervise contracting officers who administered Hadron contracts, his direct involvement was tenuous and he had no recollection of these contracts or meeting Hadron management. The investigation concluded that there was no evidence to support the claim that Videnieks' connection with Hadron was part of a conspiracy to obtain PROMIS, and that Schoolmeister's statement, at most, suggested a possible meeting between Videnieks and Laiti, which was insufficient evidence of a conspiracy.¹