An FBI agent and whistleblower who criticized the agency going back to President Trump’s first term was arrested this week at New York’s JFK International Airport and charged with illegally disclosing classified documents.
Jonathan Buma, who worked in counterintelligence, was taken into custody Monday just before he boarded an international flight.
According to court documents, Mr. Buma was charged with printing confidential material from the FBI and distributing it to his associates in 2023 for a book he was planning to write about his life in the bureau and as a whistleblower.
He was released on $100,000 bail during a preliminary hearing in Brooklyn federal court, and the charges were filed in the Central District of California.
“The book draft contained information that Buma obtained through his position as an FBI Special Agent that relates to the FBI’s efforts and investigations into a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction program,” part of the affidavit filed Tuesday says.
Mr. Buma is a 15-year FBI veteran who worked out of the Los Angeles field office and allegedly printed about 130 files from the bureau’s internal network, including some marked “Protected.”
