Well, Well, Well, The Trump Admin Leaker Has Just Been Caught – Now
He's Going To Pay.
James Wolfe is the former director of security for the Senate Select Intelligence Committee
(SSIC).
He was just indicted for lying about his contacts with the media, specifically Ali Watkins of
BuzzFeed and New York Times infamy.
All told, Wolfe allegedly had contact with four reporters around the time they wrote
about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
Those reporters are possibly known as: Reporter #1 Manu Raju at CNN, Reporter #2 Ali Watkins
at the NYT, Reporter #3 Marianna Sotomayor at NBC and Reporter #4 Brian Ross at ABC.
While the jury is still out on Page having contact with the Russians since they tried
to flip him as a spy, President Trump had nothing to do with any of that.
But these reporters sure tried to paint it as collusion.
It wasn't.
Wolfe, who is 57, is now charged with lying to the FBI.
That happened during an interview on Dec. 15, 2017 when he was asked if he knew these
journalists and if he had contact with them on certain dates.
In the case of Ali Watkins, he denied knowing her and having a romantic relationship with
her for four years.
Later he would admit to that and thus the 'lying' charge.
He also gave information on Carter Page to Ali Watkins, who ran with it.
Since then, the FBI has seized the cellphones and emails of the reporters under investigation.
Wolfe's indictment cites a particular message he wrote to Watkins in December.
She used to work for the New York Times and now works for BuzzFeed, the media outlet that
was the first to break the Russian dossier story.
"I always tried to give you as much information that I could and to do the right thing with
it so you could get that scoop before anyone else," Wolfe wrote to Watkins.
They were an item from December 2013 to December 2017.
What isn't clear is why Wolfe focused on leaking about Carter Page.
It is probably because he was the closest thing they had to a connection to Trump over
Russia.
It turned out it was a weak connection at best and did not lead to collusion with Russia
at all.
It was a political hit job against Trump.
Wolfe was arrested on Thursday.
Carter Page did not publicly comment on all of this because he is currently traveling.
However, he did blast all of this on Twitter, saying: "Too bad misleading [SSIC] leaks
brought more terror threats."
That doesn't clear Page by any means, but there has been no solid proof that he is connected
to the Russians other than through investments either.
From The Daily Caller:
"Wolfe has worked for both Democrats and Republicans in his 29-year career.
As the director of security for the committee, he was tasked with handling documents and
contacting committee witnesses.
That put him in frequent contact with Page, who was subpoenaed by the SSIC panel in October."
"Wolfe handled court documents that ended up being cited in an April 3, 2017 BuzzFeed
article written by Watkins that identified Page as "Male-1" in court filings in a
Russian spy ring case, according to the indictment.
The Senate panel received the documents from an executive branch agency on March 17, 2017,
the indictment stated."
"That same day, Wolfe exchanged 82 text messages with Watkins on the day the committee
received the Page documents.
The pair had 124 electronic communications the day the BuzzFeed article was published."
"The Department of Justice (DOJ) seized Watkins' email and phone records as part
of an investigation into the Wolfe leaks.
She has not been accused of wrongdoing in the case and has denied receiving classified
information from Wolfe."
I doubt that will last on Watkins' part.
She will eventually be charged.
Wolfe got caught in the process crime of lying, so he went down first.
But I don't believe for a second she didn't get any classified information from Wolfe.
That just stretches the imagination too far when he was sleeping with her and giving her
tons of info.
Watkins' article marked a crucial development in the coverage of Page, who surged to notoriety
in January 2017 when BuzzFeed published the unverified Steele dossier.
The 35-page document accuses Page of being the Trump campaign's conduit to the Kremlin.
Page has vehemently denied the allegation and BuzzFeed has not produced any evidence
supporting it.
I may not trust Page, but there is no way Trump and his campaign had any connection
to the Kremlin.
That's why they can't prove it.
Watkins' article was the one that outed Russian agents who were reaching out to Page
in 2013 in the alleged recruitment attempt I mentioned previously.
The FBI queried Page very closely on his ties with a Russian intelligence operative named
Victor Podobnyy.
But they evidently didn't find much as they never charged Page.
Podobnyy was charged alongside two other Russian nationals with acting as an unregistered foreign
agent of Russia.
Page met Podobnyy at an energy conference in January 2013 and later provided him with
academic papers he wrote about the energy business.
Page has denied any impropriety and was not accused of any wrongdoing, but his association
with the case has fanned the narrative that he was in contact with Kremlin operatives.
On October 24th, Wolfe messaged a reporter, who is identified as female, that Page would
testify in a closed hearing "this week."
Page got wind of it and emailed the committee to complain about leaks from the SSIC panel.
After the article about Page's subpoena was published, Wolfe messaged the reporter
who wrote that story, saying "I'm glad you got the scoop."
"Thank you," the reporter wrote.
"[Page] isn't pleased, but wouldn't deny that the subpoena was served."
Wolfe's indictment also hints that he doled out information to other reporters as I also
stated previously.
Wolfe was asked whether he knew a reporter who wrote an article about Page during his
Dec. 15, 2017 FBI interview.
Wolfe initially denied having contact with the reporter, but the FBI discovered he talked
to the journalist at least five times between December 2015 and June 2017.
That's where perjury comes into play here.
The article was written by three reporters and is not identified in the indictment.
Watkins and the media are furious that her emails and cellphone have been seized by the
DOJ and claim that it violates her First Amendment rights.
"Freedom of the press is a cornerstone of democracy, and communications between journalists
and their sources demand protection," said The NYT spokeswoman Eileen Murphy.
Ben Smith, the editor at BuzzFeed, also defended Watkins' reporting on Carter Page's "Male-1"
revelation.
"I am baffled that the FBI and Justice Department are going to these dangerous lengths over
a story that points to public court documents that describe Russian spies approaching a
Trump adviser, who himself is quoted confirming his role in the episode," Smith told The
Daily Caller News Foundation.
However, what they don't tell you is that Page was allegedly also working for the FBI
to expose these Russian spies.
Smith declined to comment on Watkins' sourcing "in the middle of an unjustifiable leak
hunt."
He did not address whether it was proper for Watkins to have a relationship with a Senate
staffer on a committee she was covering as well.
Watkins told BuzzFeed about her relationship with Wolfe, according to The NYT.
This is a national security issue on multiple fronts and the feds see that as superseding
First Amendment rights in this case.
That is something that the courts are going to have to decide and it may indeed go all
the way to the Supreme Court.
I have no doubt that the price Wolfe will pay is a prison sentence over this.
The FBI and the DOJ may make an example of Wolfe, but there are a lot more leakers out
there to be caught.
What do you think about this?
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