FBI Officially Has A Leak Investigation Unit
from the because-why-not dept
The Obama Administration was never a fan of leakers and whistleblowers. The Trump Administration isn't either. And it's continuing to ramp up investigations in response to a steady stream of leaks that tend to arrive moments after executive proclamations in order to undermine or contradict whatever has just been proclaimed.
Fired company man Jeff Sessions thought the best plan to tackle leaks was prosecuting the recipients: journalists. Not really the best plan of action in a country with enshrined speech rights, but that's the way things are being done in the nation's capital. True to form, the DOJ has gone after leakers with a vengeance, threatening to rewrite all of Obama's personal prosecution records.
The FBI is getting in on the action, according to a document obtained by Ken Klippenstein of The Young Turks. The word "espionage" is tossed around, but most of what the Trump Administration has dealt with has been embarrassing, rather than a concerted effort to hand secret documents over to our country's enemies. Nonetheless, hunting leakers is official FBI business.
"By law, the FBI is the lead federal agency responsible for the investigation of violations of the espionage laws of the United States,” one document, bearing the subheader “Functions and Mission Statement” reads.
“The complicated nature of — and rapid growth in — unauthorized disclosure and media leak threats and investigations has necessitated the establishment of a new Unit,” the document continues.
The file, dated November 10, 2017, is heavily redacted — as are the rest of the records provided to TYT. One document, dated May 24, 2018, shows that the Bureau’s Resource Analysis Unit approved a request by its Counterintelligence Division to establish a new cost code, apparently for the new leaks unit.
As Klippenstein notes, the obtained document [PDF] indicates Jeff Sessions was a man of words, rather than a man of action. The establishment of the unit -- meaning the point at which it started being funded -- didn't occur until May 2018. Sessions claimed in August 2017 the FBI already had a leak-fighting unit in place and that leak probes had already increased by 800%.
Sessions' leak-targeting premature ejaculation may have been meant to scare government employees into keeping the feds' secrets. If so, it wasn't too effective. The rate of leaks has slowed from "daily," but there's no shortage of insiders willing to spill dirt on the chaotic White House to journalists.
The government isn't opposed to leaks, per se. It just likes to ensure the narrative it wants to project makes its way to the public before the truth even gets its pants on. That hasn't worked for years, as the Obama Administration discovered prior to its war on leakers and whistleblowers. It's not going to work here either, but it does raise the odds the First Amendment is going to suffer for the sins our government fails to keep covered up.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: doj, fbi, investigation, jeff sessions, leaks, retaliation, whistleblowers
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Great idea
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Besides anything from the joke that is The Young Turks is just laughable. They are so left leaning and the lies that come out of their months non-stop is beyond laughable at this point.
Just to watch and year them during the Election where Trump WON, it's a big Youtube laugh fest. Just watching that you can see how bias they are.
Look right at the beginning, holding their Chart, there's HRC on the left and DRUMPF on the right. I mean really? You call yourself news? HAHAHAHA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpyKuzoFW40
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
oh, wait a sec - damaging to the administration - I get it now, yeah - that's the ticket.
Well, I am not aware of any laws that limit the speech of anyone based solely upon whether it makes the present administration look bad. Are there any? What happens to a leaker once they are uncovered? Do they quickly declare some email content to be magically secret? It really stinks of bullshit and the second amendment be damned I guess.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Protecting the president's fee-fees is a matter of "national security."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
In prior post I meant the 1st rather than the 2nd, but wth - the 2nd is the only one they care about.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Unit may have been unofficially operational before funding
[ link to this | view in chronology ]