US: 2 Posed as agents, gave gifts to Secret Service officers

How hard is it for Federal employees to authenticate themselves to each other?

> accused of providing Secret Service officers and agents with rent-free apartments — including a penthouse worth over $40,000 a year — along with iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, flat screen television, a generator, gun case and other policing tools, according to court documents.

Are we to assume this kind of thing is so common as to not raise suspicions? Don't they have to fill out forms to get this stuff, usually?

What kind of utter chuckle fuck operation are they running?

Weird story, sounds like a textbook example of social engineering.