Former agent pleads guilty in FBI leaks

ST. PAUL, Minn. — A former Minnesota FBI counterterrorism agent pleaded guilty Tuesday to leaking classified documents to a reporter, saying in a statement that he knew it was illegal but felt he had to act against a culture in the bureau that often treats minority communities with suspicion and disrespect.

Terry Albury, 39, appeared in federal court in St. Paul on one count of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and one count of unauthorized retention of national-defense information. Under a plea agreement, Albury faces a sentence of between 37 and 57 months but the decision will be up to U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright, who did not set a sentencing date.

Albury’s attorneys issued a statement saying Albury, who was the only black agent in the FBI’s Minneapolis office, acted out of conscience because he was troubled by how racial prejudice within the FBI affected its interactions with members of minority groups.

Albury was accused of sharing documents with an online news organization between February 2016 and Jan. 31, 2017. They included a document classified as “secret” that related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants and a document “relating to threats posed by certain individuals from a particular Middle Eastern country.”

Many of the FBI’s counterterrorism investigations in Minnesota have focused primarily on the state’s large Somali-American community.