A former FBI is facing up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of leaking secret information to The Intercept leading to a series of reports entitled “The FBI’s Secret Rules.” The series showed how the FBI expanded its powers since 9/11. (Reuters, April 17, 2018, by David Alexander and Mark Hosenball)
The former agent Terry J. Albury said in his plea that he acted in protest to the racism in the Minneapolis FBI office in particular its profiling and intimidating of minority communities. The Intercept said that Albury was a whistleblower who should be afforded protection. (The New York Times, April 17, 2018, by Maggie Astor)
Trevor Timm of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, March 30, 2018, criticized the government’s use of the Espionage Act to punish whstleblowers instead of spies. Timm said Albury supplied information about the FBI’s use of National Security Letters to evade subpoenas and court orders in obtaining journalists’ private telephone toll records.