Not a low-level staffer for a change.
Via Fox News:
A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee has pleaded guilty to one count of giving a false statement to FBI agents looking into leaks of national security information to several reporters, including one at the New York Times he dated, the Justice Department announced Monday.
James A. Wolfe, 58, was in charge of maintaining all classified information coming from the executive branch to the Senate panel. He served as the panel’s security director for 29 years.
“Did you make a false statement to the FBI?” D.C. district court judge Ketanji B. Jackson asked Wolfe in court on Monday. Wolfe had been scheduled to appear for a routine status hearing, before prosecutors announced that “substantial” negotiations had produced a guilty plea.
“I did, your honor,” Wolfe responded.
Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters, according to a statement of offense released Monday as part of his guilty plea. He also allegedly lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters. His guilty plea on Monday to one count means that the other two counts against him will be dismissed.
President Trump this summer said Wolfe’s arrest “could be a terrific thing” and called him a “very important leaker.”
“I’m a big, big believer in freedom of the press,” Trump told reporters. “But I’m also a believer in classified information. It has to remain classified.”
In a statement released after Wolfe’s guilty plea, his lawyers emphasized he had not been charged with leaking classified information.
“Jim has accepted responsibility for his actions and has chosen to resolve this matter now so that he and his family can move forward with their lives,” the attorneys said in the statement. “We will have much more to say about the facts and Jim’s distinguished record of nearly three decades of dedicated service to the Senate and the intelligence community at his sentencing hearing.”
Wolfe is set for sentencing on Dec. 20, and although the charge carries a maximum potential sentence of five years and a fine of $250,000, he realistically faces up to six months in prison according to federal sentencing guidelines.
Earlier this year, the New York Times revealed that federal investigators had seized years’ worth of email and phone records relating to one of its reporters, Ali Watkins. She previously had a three-year romantic relationship with Wolfe, the Times reported, adding that the records covered a period of time before she joined the paper. Watkins worked previously for BuzzFeed, Politico and McClatchy.
Wolfe’s contacts with Watkins specifically did not appear related to the charge he admitted on Monday to lying about.