Senate intelligence staffer who dated reporter pleads guilty to lying to FBI about leaks By Gregg Re | Fox News A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee has pleaded guilty to one count of giving a false statement to FBI agents looking into leaks of national security information to several reporters, including one at the New York Times he dated, the Justice Department announced Monday. James A. Wolfe, 58, was in charge of maintaining all classified information coming from the executive branch to the Senate panel. He served as the panel's security director for 29 years. "Did you make a false statement to the FBI?" D.C. district court judge Ketanji B. Jackson asked Wolfe in court on Monday. Wolfe had been scheduled to appear for a routine status hearing, before prosecutors announced that "substantial" negotiations had produced a guilty plea. "I did, your honor," Wolfe responded. Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters, according to a statement of offense released Monday as part of his guilty plea. He also allegedly lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters. His guilty plea on Monday to one count means that the other two counts against him will be dismissed. President Trump this summer said Wolfe's arrest “could be a terrific thing" and called him a "very important leaker." “I’m a big, big believer in freedom of the press,” Trump told reporters. "But I’m also a believer in classified information. It has to remain classified." "I’m a big, big believer in freedom of the press. But I’m also a believer in classified information." — President Trump In a statement released after Wolfe's guilty plea, his lawyers emphasized he had not been charged with leaking classified information. "Jim has accepted responsibility for his actions and has chosen to resolve this matter now so that he and his family can move forward with their lives," the attorneys said in the statement. "We will have much more to say about the facts and Jim's distinguished record of nearly three decades of dedicated service to the Senate and the intelligence community at his sentencing hearing." Wolfe is set for sentencing on Dec. 20, and although the charge carries a maximum potential sentence of five years and a fine of $250,000, he realistically faces up to six months in prison according to federal sentencing guidelines. Earlier this year, the New York Times revealed that federal investigators had seized years' worth of email and phone records relating to one of its reporters, Ali Watkins. She previously had a three-year romantic relationship with Wolfe, the Times reported, adding that the records covered a period of time before she joined the paper. Watkins worked previously for BuzzFeed, Politico and McClatchy. Wolfe's contacts with Watkins specifically did not appear related to the charge he admitted on Monday to lying about. Wolfe allegedly exchanged "tens of thousands of electronic communications" with one reporter, including one that read, ""I've watched your career take off even before you ever had a career in journalism. . . . I always tried to give you as much information that I could and to do the right thing with it so you could get that scoop before anyone else . . . ." But Wolfe told FBI agents that "he had never disclosed to REPORTER #2 classified information or information that he learned as Director of Security for the (Committee) that was not otherwise publicly available," according to Monday's court documents and his indictment. Mark MacDougall, Watkins’ attorney, said after his indictment: "It's always disconcerting when a journalist's telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department — through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process. Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges." Wolfe used several means to contact reporters, including Signal and WhatsApp, according to court papers. He also met “clandestinely in person,” in secluded areas of the Hart Senate Office Building, according to his indictment and statement of offense. News of Wolfe's guilty plea comes weeks after secret text messages revealed that anti-Trump former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page had discussed a “media leak strategy” amid the Russia probe -- even as Strzok's attorney claimed the text merely referred to efforts to stop leaks. In a September letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., raised “grave concerns” about an “apparent systemic culture of media leaking” among high-level FBI and Justice Department officials to release information damaging to Trump. He cited two text exchanges in April 2017 between now-fired FBI agent Strzok and former FBI attorney Page, in which the two discuss the bureau's "media leak strategy." "I had literally just gone to find this phone to tell you I want to talk to you about media leak strategy with DOJ before you go," Strzok texted Page on April 10, 2017, according to Meadows, who cited newly produced documents from the Justice Department. On April 22, Strzok wrote, "article is out! Well done, Page," and on April 12 he told her that two negative articles about Page's "namesake" would soon come out, according to Meadows. That was an apparent reference to Carter Page, the former Trump adviser whom the FBI surveilled for months after obtaining a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. Republicans have charged that the FBI provided misleading or inaccurate information to the FISA court to obtain the warrant. In particular, the FBI incorrectly suggested to the FISA court that a Yahoo News article provided an independent basis to monitor Page, when that article relied on the same source the FBI had cited earlier: ex-spy Christopher Steele, who worked for a firm hired by the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Hillary Clinton campaign. Page on Monday announced he was suing the DNC and other entities for allegedly spreading false and defamatory reports about his supposed dealings with Russians. Fox News' Jake Gibson and Edmund DeMarche contributed to this report.
That's what came to mind for me. https://www.bing.com/search?pc=COSP...logo=CT3332016&q=youtube clap for the wolfman
If we are going to compare politicians to Doctor Who villains, here is my take. Donald Trump as Abzorbaloff, absorbing another foolish MAGAt: Here is Kellyanne Conway as Lady Cassandra. Just a bunch of skin pulled taut over nothing but an empty soul:
I don't pay attention to what people tell me to think. In my personal opinion, Conway is like a shrieking harpy. She gives me shivers, and not the pleasant variety.
Prosecutors want 2-year prison term for ex-Senate Intel staffer James Wolfe in leak case By Samuel Chamberlain | Fox News James Wolfe, center, in June 2017. Prosecutors have asked he be sentenced to two years in prison. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) Federal prosecutors asked a judge to sentence James Wolfe, the former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, to two years in prison for lying to the FBI about leaking classified information to reporters. "Wolfe was entrusted by two branches of government," prosecutors said in a sentencing memo filed in federal court in Washington on Tuesday. "He abused that trust by using his position to cultivate relationships with reporters ... and offering to serve as a confidential source. Wolfe then lied, and lied persistently, about his actions and his relationships to the FBI agents who were investigating an unauthorized disclosure of classified information." Prosecutors said Wolfe was in regular contact with four reporters who covered the committee, in violation of Senate rules. He also maintained a yearslong personal relationship with one reporter, previously identified in news reports as Ali Watkins of The New York Times. According to the memo, Wolfe repeatedly lied about his relationship with Watkins (identified in the document as Reporter #2) until he was "confronted with photographs of himself together with [her], some of them during foreign travel." When Wolfe was asked why he didn't disclose his relationship with Watkins when he was first asked about it, the document said he responded: "Why would I?" Wolfe reportedly added that he believed he would have lost his job had he made the admission. James Wolfe and New York Times reporter Ali Watkins. According to the memo, Wolfe told another reporter (identified as Reporter #3) on Oct. 16, 2017, that he had served someone with a subpoena to appear before the committee to be interviewed about potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign. After the story was published, prosecutors said, Wolfe told her, "Good job!" and "I'm glad you got the scoop," in messages on the encrypted app Signal. The subject of the subpoena was not identified, but the dates match up to multiple media reports that former Trump campaign foreign policy adviser Carter Page was subpoenaed by the committee. Eight days later, Wolfe messaged the same reporter to say Page would testify in a closed hearing before the committee. When the reporter emailed Page for confirmation, prosecutors said Page emailed the committee to complain about the leak. A committee staffer responded to Page with an email telling him that Wolfe "could 'assist you in entering the building discreetly.'" Wolfe pleaded guilty in October to a single charge of knowingly making a false statement in the three-count indictment against him. Prosecutors argued that though there was no evidence Wolfe had disclosed classified information, he had caused "significant disruption to a governmental function and significantly endangered the national security." In their own sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, Wolfe's attorneys argued their client shouldn't serve any time behind bars. They said he deeply regretted his actions and violating his marital vows. The defense memo included a letter from three high-ranking senators: Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C.; Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va.; and Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., another member of the panel. "Jim has already lost much through these events, to include his career and reputation, and we do not believe there is any public utility in depriving him of his freedom," the senators wrote. Wolfe is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 20, his 58th birthday. The Associated Press contributed to this report. https://www.foxnews.com/politics/pr...senate-intel-staffer-james-wolfe-in-leak-case
"Blitzer has won awards, including the 2004 Journalist Pillar of Justice Award from the Respect for Law Alliance, and the 2003 Daniel Pearl Award from the Chicago Press Veterans Association. His news team was among those awarded a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of Hurricane Katrina, an Alfred I. DuPont Award for coverage of the 1999 Southeast Asian tsunami, and an Edward R. Murrow Award for CNN's coverage of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. In November 2002, he won the American Veteran Awards' Ernie Pyle Journalism Award for military reporting. In February 2000, he received the Anti-Defamation League’s Hubert H. Humphrey First Amendment Freedoms Prize. In 1999, Blitzer won the International Platform Association's Lowell Thomas Broadcast Journalism Award. Blitzer won an Emmy Award for his coverage of the Oklahoma City bombing. Blitzer was also part of the CNN team that was awarded a Golden ACE award for their 1991 Gulf War reporting. In 1994, American Journalism Review cited him and CNN as the readers' choice for the Best in the Business Award for network coverage of the Clinton administration. In May 1999, Blitzer was awarded the honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters by the University at Buffalo. On May 20, 2007, Blitzer was awarded the honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the George Washington University at their undergraduate commencement exercise.[25] On May 23, 2010, Blitzer was awarded the honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by Niagara University at their undergraduate commencement exercise. Also, on May 14, 2011, he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Penn State University. On September 25, 2011, Blitzer was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters by the University of Hartford. On May 10, 2014, Blitzer received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Howard University." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolf_Blitzer
A slap on the wrist for a Deep State Wolf: Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office District of Columbia FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday, December 20, 2018 Former U.S. Senate Employee Sentenced to Prison Term on False Statements Charge Longtime Director of Security for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Admitted Lying to FBI About Disclosing Information to Reporter WASHINGTON – James A. Wolfe, 58, of Ellicott City, Maryland, the former Director of Security for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), was sentenced today to two months in prison for making a false statement to the FBI during the course of an investigation into the unlawful disclosure of classified national security information. The announcement was made by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, U.S. Attorney Jessie K. Liu for the District of Columbia, and Special Agent in Charge Timothy M. Dunham of the Counterintelligence Division of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Wolfe pled guilty on Oct. 15, 2018, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, to one count of making a false statement. Under the plea agreement, the government moved to dismiss two remaining false statements counts at sentencing. In his proffer, Wolfe admitted to the conduct underlying one of the two dismissed counts. In addition to the prison time, the Honorable Ketanji Brown Jackson ordered that Wolfe pay a $7,500 fine. She also ordered that he complete four months of supervised release following his incarceration. During that time, he is to perform 20 hours of community service a month. At the time Wolfe made the false statement to the FBI, he was the Director of Security for the SSCI, a position he held for more than 28 years. As SSCI Director of Security, he was entrusted with receiving, maintaining, and managing classified national security information provided to the SSCI by the Executive Branch of the United States. According to a statement of offense filed at the time of the plea, the FBI opened an investigation in April 2017 into the unauthorized disclosure of classified national security information that had appeared in a specific article published by a national news organization. In December 2017, during the course of the investigation, Wolfe was interviewed. Wolfe was asked specifically about whether he had been in contact with any reporters and, if so, who those reporters were, and what were the nature and extent of those contacts and the means by which those contacts occurred. By his guilty plea, he admitted making false statements to the FBI concerning whether he had provided unclassified, but not otherwise publicly-available, information to reporters. Specifically, on Oct. 16, 2017, and again on Oct. 24, 2017, Wolfe provided a particular reporter with non-public information concerning a witness who had been subpoenaed to testify before the SSCI. Wolfe also admitted making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with three additional reporters, including one of the authors of the aforementioned article. Wolfe was indicted in June 2018. The investigation into this matter was conducted by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jocelyn Ballantine and Tejpal S. Chawla and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Laura Ingersoll of the District of Columbia, with assistance from the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, National Security Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/...sentenced-prison-term-false-statements-charge
