Criminal referrals for leaks prosecutions have surged in the Trump admin. —likely the result of a big increase in unauthorized disclosures of classified information, a leading intelligence watchdog says.
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Aftergood and other experts believe discipline about classified information has been diminishing. Trusted, cleared individuals at the CIA and the National Security Agency, including Edward Snowden, have disclosed a raft of secrets in recent years, and that phenomenon continues. Yet there is no doubt, current and former intelligence officials say, that there has been an outpouring of leaks meant to push back against Trump Administration policies, including the sorts of disclosures rarely seen before.
"In some cases, these are not leaks from deep in the military bureaucracy -- they're right out of the oval office, and that's pretty much unheard of," Aftergood said. "Referrals for investigations of classified leaks to the Department of Justice from our intelligence agencies have exploded," Sessions said, as he outlined a new effort to them, including tripling the number of active leak investigations by the FBI.
The former head of security for the Senate intelligence committee, James Wolfe, was sentenced to two months in prison last year for lying to the FBI about media contacts in what began as a leaks case, although he was not accused of disclosing classified information.
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