James Wolfe | |
---|---|
Born | James A. Wolfe December 20, 1960 [1] |
Occupation | Former Security Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence |
Criminal status | Released in 2019 BOP Register #64054-037 |
Spouses | Leslie Adair (m. 1984)Jane Rhodes (m. 2013) |
Conviction(s) | Making false statements (18 USC § 1001) |
Criminal penalty | Two months in prison, $7,500 fine |
James A. Wolfe (born December 20, 1960) is a former Security Director of the U.S. Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSCI), having served in that position for 29 years. [2] In 2018, he was sentenced to two months in federal prison after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI in relation to an investigation into leaks. [3]
Wolfe was the SSCI Security Director for three decades from 1987 to 2017. [4] In this role, he was in charge of the receipt and management of classified information submitted by the executive power; [lower-alpha 1] he was considered a congressional staffer. [6] Prior to that, he served as an Intelligence Analyst for the U.S. Army from 1983 to 1987. [7]
Wolfe was sentenced to two month's prison and a $7,500 fine for lying to the FBI during the latter's investigation of his intelligence leaks to Ali Watkins, [8] [9] a New York Times national security journalist, [10] with whom he was involved in a romantic relationship from December 2013 to December 2017. [11] [12] Following imprisonment, Wolfe had to serve four months of supervised release, doing 20 hours of monthly community service. [13]
The Washington Post, News of Australia, and The Spectator all compared Wolfe's case to that of DIA staffer Henry K. Frese, who allegedly passed on secrets to Amanda Macias during a romantic relationship. [14] [15] [16] The New York Times characterized Wolfe's case as procedurally different from that of Natalie Edwards, even though both cases involved leaking to reporters. [17]
In 2004, Wolfe was accused of assault by his first wife, Leslie Adair Wolfe, whom he had married in 1984. Wolfe's lawyers denied the charges. Wolfe married Jane Rhodes Wolfe, his second wife, in 2013. [18] In 2018, Wolfe said in court he had an extramarital relationship with a reporter. [19]
Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news events and issues accurately and fairly.
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States that provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The Committee was established in 1976 by the 94th Congress.
James Robert Clapper Jr. is a retired lieutenant general in the United States Air Force and former Director of National Intelligence. Clapper has held several key positions within the United States Intelligence Community. He served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) from 1992 until 1995. He was the first director of defense intelligence within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and simultaneously the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. He served as the director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) from September 2001 until June 2006.
John Chris Kiriakou is an American author, journalist and former intelligence officer. Kiriakou is a columnist with Reader Supported News and co-host of Political Misfits on Sputnik Radio.
Michael Thomas Flynn is a retired United States Army lieutenant general who was the 24th U.S. national security advisor for the first 22 days of the Trump administration. He resigned in light of reports that he had lied regarding conversations with Russian ambassador to the United States Sergey Kislyak. Flynn's military career included a key role in shaping U.S. counterterrorism strategy and dismantling insurgent networks in the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars, and he was given numerous combat arms, conventional, and special operations senior intelligence assignments. He became the 18th director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in July 2012 until his forced retirement from the military in August 2014. During his tenure he gave a lecture on leadership at the Moscow headquarters of the Russian military intelligence directorate GRU, the first American official to be admitted entry to the headquarters.
The Russian government used espionage to interfere in the 2016 United States elections with the goals of sabotaging the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the presidential campaign of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. According to the U.S. intelligence community, the operation—code named Project Lakhta —was ordered directly by Russian president Vladimir Putin. The 448-page Mueller report, made public in April 2019, examined over 200 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian officials but concluded that there was insufficient evidence to bring any conspiracy or coordination charges against Trump or his associates.
Christopher David Steele is a British former intelligence officer with the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1987 until his retirement in 2009. He ran the Russia desk at MI6 headquarters in London between 2006 and 2009. In 2009, he co-founded Orbis Business Intelligence, a London-based private intelligence firm.
Donald Trump's handling of United States government records, especially those containing classified information, during his tenure as the 45th U.S. president has come under scrutiny. A number of incidents in which the president disclosed classified information to foreign powers and private individuals have become publicly known, sometimes with distinct national security and diplomatic consequences.
Since Donald Trump was a 2016 candidate for the office of President of the United States, myriad suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials have been discovered by the FBI, Special counsel, and several United States congressional committees, as part of their investigations into the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following intelligence reports about the Russian interference, Trump and some of his campaign members, business partners, administration nominees, and family members were subjected to intense scrutiny to determine whether they had improper dealings during their contacts with Russian officials. Several people connected to the Trump campaign made false statements about those links and obstructed investigations. These investigations resulted in many criminal charges and indictments.
George Demetrios Papadopoulos is an author and former member of the foreign policy advisory panel to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. On October 5, 2017, Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to a felony charge of making false statements to FBI agents about the timing and the possible significance of his contacts in 2016 relating to U.S.–Russia relations and the Trump presidential campaign. In 2018, he served twelve days in federal prison, then was placed on a 12-month supervised release. During his supervised release from prison, he participated in the filming of a still-unreleased docuseries. In March 2019, Papadopoulos released his book, Deep State Target: How I Got Caught in the Crosshairs of the Plot to Bring Down President Trump. He was pardoned by Trump in December 2020.
This is a timeline of major events in the first half of 2017 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. Following the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8 and the post-election transition, this article begins with Donald Trump and Mike Pence being sworn into office on January 20, 2017, and is followed by the second half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
This is a timeline of major events in first half of 2018 related to the investigations into links between associates of Donald Trump and Russian officials and spies that are suspected of being inappropriate, relating to Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the transition, and the first and second halves of 2017, but precedes the second half of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021. These events are related to, but distinct from, Russian interference in the 2018 United States elections.
Ali Watkins is an American journalist who writes for The New York Times. Along with two colleagues, she was a finalist for the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for a body of work consisting 10 articles spanning from March 3, 2014, to July 14, 2014. Watkins has worked for a number of publications, including BuzzFeed, Politico, McClatchy, The Huffington Post, and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards is a United States former senior official with the U.S. Department of the Treasury who was employed in the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Sarah Ellison of The Washington Post has called her "one of the most important whistleblowers of our era."
Crossfire Hurricane was the code name for the counterintelligence investigation undertaken by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) from July 31, 2016, to May 17, 2017, into links between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russia and "whether individuals associated with [Trump's] presidential campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election". Trump was not personally under investigation until May 2017, when his firing of FBI director James Comey raised suspicions of obstruction of justice, which triggered the Mueller investigation.
Henry Kyle (Keenan) Frese is a former employee at the Defense Intelligence Agency, between February 2018 and October 2019, during which time he was assigned to a facility in Virginia.
This is a timeline of major events in the second half of 2017 related to the investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections before and after July 2016 up until election day November 8, the post-election transition, and the first half of 2017. The investigations continued in the first and second halves of 2018, the first and second halves of 2019, 2020, and 2021.
Amanda Macias is an American journalist who reports on national security subjects for the financial news network CNBC.
This is a timeline of events from 2020 to 2022 related to investigations into the many suspicious links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies relating to the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. It follows the timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections, both before and after July 2016, until November 8, 2016, election day, the transition, the first and second halves of 2017, the first and second halves of 2018, and the first and second halves of 2019.
Date of birth: 12/20/60
The Justice Department has managed to prosecute congressional staffers for leaking. In late 2018, James A. Wolfe, a staffer on the Senate Intelligence Committee, was sentenced to two months in jail for lying to FBI agents about unauthorized contacts he had with a reporter
A federal judge sentenced a former Senate staffer who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with journalists to two months in jail and a fine of $7,500
Ali Watkins, who covered national security for the Times, was given a new assignment in 2018 after she disclosed that she had had a romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee staffer with access to sensitive intelligence data.
Ms. Watkins and Mr. Wolfe were romantically involved, according to prosecutors
That bit of forbearance differentiates this investigation [... from ...] the 2018 case involving New York Times reporter Ali Watkins. In that case, the FBI grabbed records of Watkins' communications with James Wolfe
James Wolfe was arrested and charged with lying to investigators about his contacts with three reporters, one of whom he was allegedly in a romantic relationship with. New York Times reporter Ali Watkins had previously tweeted about wanting to be like the character Zoe Barnes
the three-year affair between (surprise), New York Times reporter Ali Watkins and James Wolfe, a senior aide to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and a frequent source for her stories. In October of this year, an employee of the United States Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested for leaking classified material to two reporters, one of which he was involved in a romantic relationship with
James A. Wolfe, denies that he distributed classified materials, and the Justice Department has not charged him with leaking information. The case against Ms. Edwards is different. [...] When questioned by investigators, Ms. Edwards did not deny having shared them
Wolfe and his lawyers argued that he deceived the FBI because he wanted to cover up an extramarital relationship with a reporter. He feared that its disclosure would distress his family