The Pellicano scandal keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. News reports say an FBI agent who dated actress Linda Fiorentino and allegedly came to know Anthony Pellicano through her was just charged with illegally accessing an FBI computer to help the ex-Hollywood P.I. in his defense. Mark Rossini resigned as a fed Friday before he was accused in a criminal information in U.S. District Court in Washington. (He’s exected to cop a plea on Monday.) The back story is complex: Fiorentino reportedly expressed interest in making the Pellicano family’s life story into a film. Because of his connection to the actress, Rossini is thought to be the source of an FBI report obtained by Pellicano’s attorneys. It raised questions about the credibility of a Pellicano nemesis, (now retired) FBI agent Stan Ornellas after Rossini “exceeded his authorized access to a protected computer belonging to the Federal Bureau of Investigation” on five different occasions in 2007, according to today’s court papers cited by the legal website TickleTheWire.com and The Washington Post. Let me get this straight: so Pellicano obtained information obtained illegally to try to defend himself from criminal charges of illegally obtaining information.

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