A former F.B.I. agent will serve three years and seven months in prison after pleading guilty to leaking classified information to an Associated Press reporter about an aborted bomb plot in Yemen in 2012. In investigating the leak, the government issued subpoenas to telephone companies to obtain the phone logs of A.P. bureaus and reporters causing an outcry from legislators and journalists. (The New York Times, September 23, 2013, by Charlie Savage)
The prosecution of the ex-agent Donald Sachtelben is an unprecedented eighth prosecution of government leakers during the Obama administration. The administration contended that Sachtelben’s leak led to publication of information that most likely destroyed a double agent’s cover. (Global Post, September 24, 2013, by Daniel DeFraia)