A former employee of the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has been arrested on charges of lying to the FBI about contacts he had with multiple reporters, federal prosecutors said on Thursday.
James Wolfe, the long-time director of security for the committee, was indicted on three false statement counts, with prosecutors saying that he misled agents about his relationships with reporters.
Although Wolfe was not charged with disclosing classified information, prosecutors said he was in regular contact with multiple journalists who covered the committee, including meeting them at restaurants, in bars, private residences and in a Senate office building.
He also maintained a years-long personal relationship with one reporter, which prosecutors said he lied about until being confronted with a photograph of him and the journalist.
Wolfe, of Ellicott City, Maryland, was yesterday due in court. It was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer.
Each false statement count is punishable by up to five years in prison, although if convicted, Wolfe would almost certainly face only a fraction of that time.
The criminal case arises from an FBI interview with Wolfe in December last year in which prosecutors said he was shown a news article that contained classified information and was authored by three journalists.
He checked “no” in a written questionnaire when asked if he had any contact with the reporters, even though records obtained by the government showed that he had been in contact with one of them.
He also denied having contact with other journalists when in fact he had communicated with other reporters, including over encrypted messaging applications.
After one journalist published a story about a witness who had been subpoenaed to appear before the committee, Wolfe wrote to say: “Good job!” and “I’m glad you got the scoop.”
The indictment was announced soon after the New York Times revealed that the US Department of Justice had secretly seized the telephone records and e-mails of one of its journalists, Ali Watkins, as part of the leak investigation involving Wolfe.
Watkins was approached by the FBI about a three-year relationship she had had with Wolfe while she worked at other publications, the newspaper said, adding that Watkins said Wolfe was not a source of classified information for her during their relationship.
In a statement on Thursday night, Watkins’ attorney, Mark MacDougall, said: “It’s always disconcerting when a journalist’s telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department — through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process. Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges.”
The prosecution comes amid a Trump administration crackdown on leaks of classified information.
Trump and US Attorney General Jeff Sessions have decried such disclosures, with Sessions in August last year saying that the number of criminal leak probes had more than tripled in the early months of the Trump administration.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of