Former Senate Intelligence Committee security director, James Wolfe, arrested in leak investigation

  It looks like there might be some progress being made in the leak investigation as the first arrest was made. It is being reported here that former Senate intelligence Committee security director, James Wolfe, has been arrested for lying to the FBI. Here is more:

A longtime US Senate staffer was arrested late Thursday on charges of lying to federal agents as part of an investigation related to the unauthorized disclosure of non-public information, according to a federal indictment.

Federal prosecutors accuse James Wolfe, the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, of lying to FBI agents in December 2017 about his contacts with three reporters, including through his use of encrypted messaging applications. According to the indictment, Wolfe made false statements to the FBI about providing two reporters with non-public information related to the matters occurring before the committee.

The indictment provides a detailed account of Wolfe’s interactions with one specific unnamed reporter. Prosecutors say Wolfe eventually admitted to being in a personal relationship with that reporter, dating back to 2014.

Yet he “maintained 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.”

  As of right now the charges are lying to the FBI and there is nothing about leaking classified information but what did he lie about? He lied about giving “non-public” information to a reporter. Whether or not any of that information turns out to have been classified we will have to wait and see, but then there is this.

Wolfe had extensive contact with reporters about “MALE-1,” who was reportedly identified as Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser.

Wolfe received classified information about “MALE-1” on the same day he exchanged 82 text messages with “REPORTER #2,” according to the indictment. A few weeks later, “REPORTER #2” published an online article that revealed the identity of “MALE-1.”

On April 3, 2017, Watkins’ byline appeared on a BuzzFeed article that revealed that Page had met with a Russian intelligence operative in 2013.

Wolfe allegedly called “REPORTER #2” nearly a half-hour after the story went live and had a phone conversation for about seven minutes.

In December 2017, Wolfe allegedly messaged “REPORTER #2.”

“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 (sic) that I could and to do the right thing with it so you could get that scoop before anyone else. … I always enjoyed the way that you would pursue a story,like nobody else was doing in my hal1way (sic). I felt like I was part of your excitement and was always very supportive of your career and the tenacity that you exhibited to chase down a good story,” the message read, according to the indictment.

  James Wolfe, according to the article referenced above, did receive classified information on Carter Page shortly before contacting the reporter he had a “relationship” with. (A relationship he lied about to the FBI by the way.) Did he pass on any of that information?

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