Another Trump leaker bites the dust. Former FBI agent, Terry James Albury, was sentenced to four years in prison and another three years of supervision after leaking classified information to The Intercept. Albury said that he was just trying to shed light on what was going in in this administration, but no one believed him.
The FBI has been circling the wagons to protect FBI agents who are anti-Trump but they didn’t for Albury. A cynic might say that the difference was that all the other agents were white, but Albury is black. OK, so I’m a cynic, Sue me.
Terry James Albury, 39, pleaded guilty in April to one count each of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and unauthorized retention of national defense information. He apologized in court before the sentence was handed down.
Prosecutors said Albury betrayed public trust when he stole more than 70 documents, including 50 that were classified. The information he shared with an online news organization included a document classified as “secret” that related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.
U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright said Albury abused his security clearance and position as an FBI agent to commit a crime.
“You did so knowingly. You did so willingly. You knew that what you did was a criminal act, and you knew that you were putting the nation’s security at risk,” the judge told Albury.
Wright said the prison sentence reflects the seriousness of the offenses and should deter others from doing something similar.
Albury’s defense attorneys had asked for probation, saying he acted patriotically and was morally conflicted by the FBI’s counterterrorism policies that he viewed as racial profiling.
More leakers need to be brought to justice. Political leaker endangers lives and our national security. This must end now, and perhaps it will now that they see fellow leakers going to prison.