FBI agent who accused Trump administration of political bias charged with unlawful disclosures
An FBI agent who accused the bureau of political bias during President Donald Trump's first administration was arrested Monday in New York on charges related to the alleged unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Johnathan Buma, a 15-year veteran of the bureau, allegedly shared text messages, internal documents and other sensitive information with associates, including as part of a prospective book he began writing about his career as an FBI agent.
Beginning in Oct. 2023, Buma "printed approximately 130 files from the FBI's internal network ... some of which were clearly marked with warnings that made clear that the information was to be protected," according to charging documents.
"Buma also printed nine text-file documents which contained text that had been copied and pasted from reports that were marked in such a way that made clear that the information must be protected," the charging documents said..
In the ensuing weeks, Buma allegedly shared a draft of a book he had written about his career at the FBI with "associates" over email. The draft allegedly included details about "the FBI's investigations into a foreign country's weapons of mass destruction ('WMDs') program," the charging document alleges.
While the investigation into Buma appears to have begun during the Biden administration -- with several news outlets reporting on an FBI raid on his home in late 2023 -- Buma has been a vocal critic of how the first Trump administration handled classified information that Trump's former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, was the target of a Russian influence operation.
Federal agents arrested Buma on Monday as he was about to board an outbound international flight, the documents show. He appeared in Brooklyn federal court for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday and was released from detention.
He has not entered a plea and his attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The charges were filed in the Central District of California.
Buma's former attorney denied any wrongdoing when the raid on Buma's home was reported in late 2023.
