An FBI agent-turned-whistleblower was arrested when trying to board an international flight at JFK airport on Monday, accused of illegally disclosing classified records that included sensitive material regarding informants and investigations. Johnathan Buma, a veteran counterintelligence officer with the Bureau, had previously accused the federal government’s law enforcement arm of political bias in its investigations.
Buma alleged that the agency ordered him not to investigate information indicating that Trump ally Rudy Giuliani could be compromised by Russian intelligence, while being ordered to proceed when it came to Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine. In an interview with Business Insider in September 2023, Buma said that he was the target of retaliation within the Bureau, which he says “got to a point where it was pretty intolerable,” leading him to file a whistleblower disclosure within the organization in 2022, as well as another with the Senate Judiciary committee in July of 2023.
In a Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday, federal prosecutors charged Buma with a single count of disclosure of confidential information, which carries a sentence of up to one year in prison. They allege that in October of 2023, Buma printed copies of around 130 files from his California office, which included information provided by a confidential informant, that informant’s identity, and screenshots of his text messages with them.
The affidavit also alleges that Buma then emailed his superiors telling them that he was taking an unpaid leave of absence, before posting excerpts of a book he was writing about his career on social media and emailing drafts to a number of people, some of whom were helping him negotiate a book deal. Prosecutors claim the draft contained information about an FBI investigation into a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction program. Court filings also indicate that the counterintelligence officer had submitted his resignation last Sunday.
Buma was released on $100,000 bail, and his case will proceed in California. He has not entered a plea.
