Justice Department Declines to Prosecute Serial FBI Leaker

May 30, 2019

The Department of Justice declined to prosecute a senior FBIofficial linked to the Clinton-email investigation despite evidence that he or she leaked information from a sealed federal court filing in violation of federal law, according to an investigative summary released by the DOJ inspector general on May 29.

The inspector general discovered evidence that a Deputy Assistant Director at the FBI leaked sealed federal court information and sensitive law enforcement information to the media. The FBI official also had dozens of contacts with the media in violation of FBI policy, according to the findings.

The same official also violated federal statutes and FBI policy by accepting a ticket worth $225 to a media-sponsored dinner as a gift from a member of the media, the inspector general determined.

The inspector general’s single-page summary noted that “a preponderance of evidence” was found to establish each charge.

“Prosecution of the DAD was declined,” says the watchdog’s statement.

The name of the DAD (Deputy Assistant Director) is not provided in the document. The fired FBI official, Peter Strzok, held the Deputy Assistant Director title when he worked as the lead agent on the Clinton-email investigation.

According to text messages between Strzok and his FBI mistress, Lisa Page, on Oct. 24 to 28, 2016, Page was communicating with Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett.

Barrett went on to publish an article on Oct. 30, 2016, which triggered a leak investigation by the FBI which was handed off to the DOJ inspector general. That leak investigation determined that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe authorized Page to leak to Barret. McCabe went on to lie about authorizing the leak three times under oath, according to the inspector general’s report (pdf) released in February 2018.

The bureau fired McCabe in March 2018 based on the findings of the report. Page left the bureau in May 2018. Strzok was fired in June 2018.

The May 29 summary about the Deputy Assistant Director is the result of one of several leak investigations initiated as a result of the inquiry into the actions taken by the FBI and DOJ before the 2016 election. That inquiry focused mainly on the handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of an unauthorized private email server to conduct government business during her term as the secretary of state.

Over the course of the inquiry into the handling of the Clinton-email investigation, the DOJ inspector general identified dozens of FBI employees who had unauthorized contacts with media, according to the watchdog’s final report (pdf) released in June 2018.

“We have profound concerns about the volume and extent of unauthorized media contacts by FBI personnel that we have uncovered during our review,” the inspector general’s report stated.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *