A former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee has pleaded guilty to one count of giving a false statement to FBI agents looking into leaks of national security information to several reporters, the Justice Department announced Monday.
James A. Wolfe, 58, was in charge of maintaining all classified information from the executive branch to the Senate panel. He served as the panel’s security director for 29 years.
“Did you make a false statement to the FBI?” D.C. district court judge Ketanji B. Jackson asked Wolfe in court on Monday. Wolfe had been scheduled to appear for a routine status hearing before prosecutors announced that “substantial” negotiations had produced a guilty plea.
Wolfe lied to the FBI in December 2017 about contacts he had with three reporters, according to a federal indictment issued this summer. He also allegedly lied about giving two reporters non-public information about committee matters. His guilty plea on Monday to one count means that the other two counts against him will be dismissed. READ MORE: