FBI Linguist Guilty of Leaking Classified Documents

An Israeli-American lawyer who worked as an FBI linguist pleaded guilty Thursday to providing an unidentified blogger with classified documents derived from U.S. communications intelligence. Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, 39, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded to one felony count of disclosing to an unauthorized party five documents that were classified “secret” that he obtained through his work with the FBI. Leibowitz leaked the documents to the unnamed blogger in April 2009. The blogger — identified as “Recipient A” in court filings — then wrote a post based on the classified documents. “As a trusted member of the FBI ranks, Leibowitz abused the trust of the FBI and the American public by using his access to classified information for his own purposes,” said the FBI special agent in charge, Richard A. McFeely, in a press release...read more