John Sommers II/Reuters
The Justice Department has charged a former Minneapolis FBI agent with leaking classified national-security information to “a reporter for a national media organization,” the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports. A federal complaint filed in Minnesota identifies the agent as Terry J. Albury and alleges he shared one document concerning FBI assessments of informants and another regarding threats posed by people “from a particular Middle Eastern country.” Though the complaint does not name the news organization involved, the charges are widely believed to stem from a story published by The Intercept in 2017 about the FBI allegedly using aggressive tactics to recruit informants. Albury’s lawyers have said he accepts “full responsibility” for the conduct described in the complaint, according to the Star-Tribune. But “as the only African-American FBI field agent in Minnesota,” his “actions were driven by a conscientious commitment to long-term national security and addressing the well-documented systemic biases within the FBI,” his attorneys said. Albury joined the agency in 2000 but it wasn't immediately clear when and under what circumstances he left. The charges against him come after the Justice Department tripled its number of investigations to stop what Attorney General Jeff Sessions called a “culture of leaking.”