Treasury official charged with media leaks

WASHINGTON — A senior Treasury Department employee was charged Wednesday with leaking to a reporter confidential government reports about the financial transactions of Trump associates and others under scrutiny in the special counsel’s probe of Russian election interference.

The charges reflect the latest move in the Trump administration’s effort to punish leakers within the government. Earlier this week, a former senior Senate staffer pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in a separate leak investigation.

The Treasury case centers on a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed News that described suspicious-activity reports, or SARs, which are generated by banks when a financial transaction might involve illegal activity.

Prosecutors charged Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards with the unauthorized disclosure of suspicious-activity reports and conspiracy.

Edwards, 40, lives outside Richmond, Virginia, and works as a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

The BuzzFeed News stories often focused on suspicious-activity reports related to key figures in the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert Mueller, including former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Russian diplomats and other Trump associates.