A longtime FBI agent has been charged with unlawfully taking and disclosing protected FBI information, in line with court docket data reviewed by CBS Information.
Johnathan Buma, who specialised in nationwide safety and terror circumstances, has been launched on $100,000 bond, with orders to seem in court docket in Los Angeles.
Buma was arrested as he boarded a global flight at JFK airport in New York, in line with charging paperwork. The Justice Division’s filings allege Buma printed of caches of FBI data from an inside company community. Practically 130 information may need been compromised, in line with an FBI investigators. The federal government argues the data have been clearly marked as confidential or safe and have been copied by Buma within the hours earlier than he left his job within the bureau in October 2023.
The charging paperwork additionally allege that days after taking copies of the data, Buma used social media to publish excerpts of a guide he was writing about his profession with the bureau. Federal investigators allege the guide included data Buma obtained from the FBI about an investigation of a overseas nation’s weapons of mass destruction program.Â
Earlier than he left his job, Buma claimed to be a whistleblower and was publicly vital of the Trump administration throughout the President Trump’s first time period. He had additionally testified earlier than a Senate committee in 2023 that his informants have been the primary to alert the federal government about potential misconduct by Hunter Biden enterprise dealings in Ukraine with an vitality firm. He mentioned they supplied data “regarding Hunter Biden’s escapades in Ukraine with Burisma and the way he used his place because the vp’s son to get a profitable place.”
In accordance with the charging paperwork, Buma can be accused of saving screenshots of messages he exchanged with a confidential FBI supply.
In court docket filings submitted in a U.S. District Court docket in New York, investigators referenced Buma’s personal guide manuscript. In a single part, Buma refers to himself as “one of many nation’s prime performing counterintelligence brokers.”
There was no speedy response from Buma’s legal professional to a request for remark. No plea has been entered in case but.
Buma was a ticketed passenger on an outbound worldwide flight on Monday from JFK airport, in line with the Justice Division. He was taken into custody by FBI staff at 10 p.m. Monday, earlier than the flight departed. Â
He labored for the FBI, together with out of an Orange County, California, workplace of the FBI’s Los Angeles division throughout his 15-year profession. Buma targeted on counterintelligence and counterproliferation issues.
Editor’s notice: An earlier model of this report mentioned that Johnathan Buma was charged with disclosing labeled data, however the data have been confidential. The article has been up to date.
