FBI leaker sentenced to four years in prison

WASHINGTON: A former FBI agent who leaked internal documents showing how the agency used racial profiling in counter-terror investigations was sentenced to four years in prison.

In the third case this week to underscore the Trump administration's determined crackdown on media leaks, Terry Albury, a 17-year FBI veteran, was ordered to prison for 48 months after pleading guilty in the case.

“We are conducting perhaps the most aggressive campaign against leaks in department history,” said Attorney-General Jeff Sessions in a statement.

“Crimes like the one committed by the defendant in this case will not be tolerated — they will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and punished.”

Albury was a special agent in the FBI Minneapolis field office in 2016 and 2017 when he leaked the agency's Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide to The Intercept.

The guide showed how the agency can use racial and religious profiling to target investigations, bend rules to infiltrate activist groups, and spy on journalists.

Albury's lawyers said that as the only black field agent in the Minneapolis office, he took note of racist attitudes inside his squad and how these made it more difficult to gain the trust of the large Somali-American community in the area — which had sent a number of young men to join jihadist groups Al-Shabab and Islamic State as fighters.