A former senior Senate Intelligence Committee aide was charged Thursday for allegedly lying to FBI agents late last year about his contacts with three reporters, according to court documents. James Wolfe, 58, who served as the director of security for the Senate panel for 29 years, was indicted as part of a federal probe into the leaking of classified information, the Justice Department announced. Wolfe stopped doing work for the committee in December 2017 and stepped down from his post in May, according to The New York Times. ADVERTISEMENT Wolfe allegedly lied to the FBI in December about his communications with three reporters through encrypted messaging applications. He also is accused of lying about giving two reporters nonpublic information about committee business. Wolfe is slated to make his first court appearance in the case on Friday at the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate panel indicated late Thursday that they were made aware of the federal investigation in late 2017. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr Richard Mauze BurrOvernight Health Care: Moderna says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in 12- to 17-year-olds | US achieves full vaccinations for half of adults | Trump on Wuhan lab: Now everyone agrees 'I was right' Manchin, Sinema press GOP senators on Jan. 6 commission Murkowski to back Jan. 6 commission bill MORE (R-N.C.) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner Mark Robert WarnerSenators offer bill to allow remote online notarizations Second suspected 'Havana Syndrome' case near White House under investigation: report Warner: Hack-reporting law 'one of the few areas left where there's broad bipartisan support' MORE (D-Va.) said in a joint statement that they "have fully cooperated" with the FBI and DOJ. They also said the Senate panel "has made certain official records available to the Justice Department" through the Senate Legal Counsel. “We are troubled to hear of the charges filed against a former member of the Committee staff. While the charges do not appear to include anything related to the mishandling of classified information, the Committee takes this matter extremely seriously," they said. “This news is disappointing, as the former staffer in question served on the Committee for more than three decades, and in the Armed Forces with distinction. However, we trust the justice system to act appropriately and ensure due process as this case unfolds," they continued, adding the case would "in no way interfere" with the panel's ongoing probe into Russia's election meddling. The DOJ noted Thursday in announcing the charges against Wolfe that Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsCNN reporter's phone and email records secretly obtained by Trump administration: report Biden looks to expand legal assistance for minorities, low-income Americans One quick asylum fix: How Garland can help domestic violence survivors MORE has pushed to increase the number of leak investigations pursued by the department. “The Attorney General has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice. The allegations in this indictment are doubly troubling as the false statements concern the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement. “Those entrusted with sensitive information must discharge their duties with honesty and integrity, and that includes telling the truth to law enforcement.” The development comes after the Times reported Thursday that the Justice Department seized phone and email records from national security reporter Ali Watkins, who was previously in a three-year relationship with Wolfe. FBI agents reportedly contacted Watkins about her relationship with Wolfe as part of a probe into unauthorized leaks. Watkins, who now works at the Times, reportedly did not answer the agents' questions, however. Watkins told the newspaper that Wolfe did not act as a source of information during their relationship. She also said she informed editors at BuzzFeed and Politico of the relationship. Authorities reportedly obtained phone records from when she was working at those publications. --Updated at 11:59 p.m.<doc-sep>Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt attends a news conference at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, on his decision to scrap Obama administration fuel standards. (AP/Andrew Harnik) White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders speaks during the daily briefing in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House on March 27, 2018 in Washington, DC. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Meghan McCain to WH staffer: How do you have a job? Jim Wolfe, committee staff member, left, helps direct acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, second left, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and National Intelligence Director Dan Coats to their seats for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, June 7, 2017, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) (CNN) — A longtime US Senate staffer was arrested late Thursday on charges of lying to federal agents as part of an investigation related to the unauthorized disclosure of non-public information, according to a federal indictment. Federal prosecutors accuse James Wolfe, the former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee, of lying to FBI agents in December 2017 about his contacts with three reporters, including through his use of encrypted messaging applications. According to the indictment, Wolfe made false statements to the FBI about providing two reporters with non-public information related to the matters occurring before the committee. The indictment provides a detailed account of Wolfe’s interactions with one specific unnamed reporter. Prosecutors say Wolfe eventually admitted to being in a personal relationship with that reporter, dating back to 2014. Yet he “maintained that he had never disclosed to REPORTER #2 classified information or information that he learned as Director of Security for the (Committee) that was not otherwise publicly available.” Investigators obtained email and phone records for the pair allegedly showing “tens of thousands of electronic communications,” including a text message from Wolfe that read in part: “I’ve watched your career take off even before you ever had a career in journalism… . 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’s identity had been previously undisclosed, but the Senate had quietly passed a resolution Wednesday evening authorizing lawmakers to provide the Justice Department with documents in connection to the investigation. In a joint statement Thursday evening, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, Republican of North Carolina, and Vice Chairman Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, called the news troubling. “While the charges do not appear to include anything related to the mishandling of classified information, the Committee takes this matter extremely seriously. We were made aware of the investigation late last year, and have fully cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice since then,” they said. “This news is disappointing, as the former staffer in question served on the Committee for more than three decades, and in the Armed Forces with distinction. However, we trust the justice system to act appropriately and ensure due process as this case unfolds. This will in no way interfere with our ongoing investigation, and the Committee remains committed to carrying out our important work on behalf of the American people.” The New York Times reported earlier Thursday evening that one of its reporters, Ali Watkins, had been contacted by federal investigators about the inquiry into Wolfe and a prosecutor notified her that her email and phone records – but not the content of her communications – were obtained. The Times reported Watkins denies receiving classified information from Wolfe during the their relationship. In response to an inquiry from CNN, her lawyer Mark J. MacDougall said, “It’s always disconcerting when a journalist’s telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department – through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process.” “Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges,” MacDougall added. A congressional source said the Senate panel was not aware that the Justice Department had seized a reporter’s records when it passed a resolution Wednesday to provide DOJ with documents tied to the investigation. The case is likely to spur a robust discussion in the coming days ahead about targeting the communications of journalists as lawmakers continue to demand highly classified documents related to the Russia investigation. The department has a media policy that dictates guidelines investigators must follow before seeking a reporter’s records. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has previously told members of Congress that his department is taking the leak “epidemic” seriously, but Wolfe’s case appears to be the first publicly known instance of the Justice Department targeting a reporter’s data under President Donald Trump. “The Attorney General has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers in a statement. “The allegations in this indictment are doubly troubling as the false statements concern the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information.” Over the past year, as the committee’s Russia inquiry heated up, Wolfe was responsible for escorting high-profile witnesses into the committee’s secure spaces, including Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. Wolfe had worked under leadership of both parties since 1987, before abruptly departing the senate panel at the end of 2017. Reached Wednesday by CNN’s Manu Raju, Wolfe denied being contacted by the DOJ or FBI. “I have no knowledge,” Wolfe said, when asked about a Justice Department investigation. Wolfe is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court Friday morning.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — A former employee of the Senate intelligence committee has been arrested on charges of lying to the FBI about contacts he had with multiple reporters and is expected in federal court Friday in Baltimore. James A. Wolfe was indicted on three false statement counts after prosecutors say he misled agents about his relationships with reporters. James A. Wolfe, the longtime director of security for the committee — one of multiple congressional panels investigating potential ties between Russia and the Trump campaign — was indicted on three false statement counts after prosecutors say he misled agents about his relationships with reporters. Though Wolfe is not charged with disclosing classified information, prosecutors say he was in regular contact with multiple journalists who covered the committee, including meeting them at restaurants, in bars, private residences and in a Senate office building. He also maintained a yearslong personal relationship with one reporter, which prosecutors say he lied about until being confronted with a photograph of him and the journalist. READ NEXT: The difference between illegal leaks and inconvenient leaks The indictment was announced on soon after The New York Times revealed that the Justice Department had secretly seized the phone records and emails of one of its journalists, Ali Watkins, as part of the same leak investigation involving Wolfe. The newspaper said Watkins was approached by the FBI about a three-year relationship she had had with Wolfe when she worked at other publications. The newspaper also said that Watkins said that Wolfe was not a source of classified information for her during their relationship. In a statement Thursday night, Watkins’ attorney, Mark MacDougall, said: “It’s always disconcerting when a journalist’s telephone records are obtained by the Justice Department — through a grand jury subpoena or other legal process. Whether it was really necessary here will depend on the nature of the investigation and the scope of any charges.” Wolfe, 57, of Ellicott City, Maryland, is expected to appear in U.S. District Court Friday morning in Maryland’s Northern Division in Baltimore. It wasn’t immediately clear whether he had a lawyer. Each false statement count is punishable by up to five years in prison, though if convicted, Wolfe would almost certainly face only a fraction of that time. The criminal case arises from a December 2017 FBI interview with Wolfe in which he denied having relationships with journalists or discussing committee business with them. At one point, he was presented with a news article containing classified information and was asked, in a written questionnaire, if he had had contact with any of the piece’s three authors. He checked “no” even though records obtained by the government show that he had been in communication with one of them. In a separate instance, after one journalist published a story about a witness who’d been subpoenaed to appear before the committee, Wolfe wrote to say, “Good job!” and “I’m glad you got the scoop” The prosecution comes amid a Trump administration crackdown on leaks of classified information. President Donald Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have decried such disclosures, with Sessions saying in August that the number of leak of criminal leak probes had more than tripled in the early months of the Trump administration. “The Attorney General has stated that investigations and prosecutions of unauthorized disclosure of controlled information are a priority of the Department of Justice. The allegations in this indictment are doubly troubling as the false statements concern the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information,” Assistant Attorney General John Demers, the Justice Department’s top national security official, said in a statement. The Obama administration had its own repeated tangles with journalists, including secretly subpoenaing phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors during a 2012 leak investigation into a story about a bomb plot. The Justice Department amended its media guidelines in 2015 to make it more difficult for prosecutors to subpoena journalists for their sources, though officials in the last year have said they are reviewing those policies. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr and the top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Mark Warner, said in a joint statement that they were troubled by the charges. Wolfe had worked for the committee for roughly 30 years, and his position as security director meant that he had access to classified information provided to the panel by the executive branch. “While the charges do not appear to include anything related to the mishandling of classified information, the committee takes this matter extremely seriously,” the senators said. “We were made aware of the investigation late last year, and have fully cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice since then.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office originally misstated Mr. Wolfe’s age. This story has been updated to reflect that he is 57. Associated Press writers Chad Day and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.<doc-sep>WASHINGTON — A former Senate Intelligence Committee aide was arrested on Thursday in an investigation of classified information leaks where prosecutors also secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records. The former aide, James A. Wolfe, 57, was charged with lying repeatedly to investigators about his contacts with three reporters. According to the authorities, Mr. Wolfe made false statements to the F.B.I. about providing two of them with sensitive information related to the committee’s work. He denied to investigators that he ever gave classified material to journalists, the indictment said. Mr. Wolfe, the Intelligence Committee’s director of security, was slated to appear before a federal judge on Friday in Washington. Reached on Thursday evening before his arrest, Mr. Wolfe declined to comment. Mr. Wolfe’s case led to the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporter’s data under President Trump. The seizure was disclosed in a letter to the Times reporter, Ali Watkins, who had been in a three-year relationship with Mr. Wolfe. The seizure suggested that prosecutors under the Trump administration will continue the aggressive tactics employed under President Barack Obama.<doc-sep>
A former Senate Intelligence Committee staffer has been indicted on charges of lying to the FBI about his contacts with reporters, the Justice Department announced Thursday night — as it emerged that e-mails and phone rec­ords of a journalist with whom he had a personal relationship were seized amid the probe. James A. Wolfe — the director of security for the committee for 29 years until his abrupt departure at the end of 2017 — was indicted on three counts, including for allegedly making false statements to the FBI about providing reporters with sensitive information on matters before the committee. He allegedly even used encrypted-messaging applications to do so. Wolfe is not charged, though, with disclosing classified information. The indictment details text messages apparently sent between Wolfe and reporter Ali Watkins before the publication of her 2017 BuzzFeed story about former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page’s contacts with Russians. Watkins, who also worked for Politico, is now a reporter for The New York Times, which said she had a romantic relationship for three years with Wolfe, 57, that prompted the FBI to contact her. Wolfe, a career Senate staffer who began in 1987, claims he was not a source of information for Watkins. The Times, too, said the reporter did not use him as a source. Among his duties as the committee’s security chief as the Russia investigation gained steam was escorting witnesses — including Jared Kushner — when they testified before the panel. He also reportedly was in charge of maintaining classified information. Prosecutors say he was in regular contact with multiple journalists who covered the committee, including meeting them at restaurants, in bars, private residences and in a Senate office building. The feds also say he lied about his relationship with Watkins until he was confronted with a photo of him together with her. Assistant Attorney General John Demers said, “The allegations in this indictment are doubly troubling, as the false statements concern the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive and confidential information.” And Jessie K. Liu, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, said, “Mr. Wolfe’s alleged conduct is a betrayal of the extraordinary public trust that had been placed in him. “It is hoped that these charges will be a warning to those who might lie to law enforcement to the detriment of the United States.” In a joint statement, Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chairman Mark Warner (D-Va.) said, “While the charges do not appear to include anything related to the mishandling of classified information, the committee takes this matter extremely seriously. “We were made aware of the investigation late last year, and have fully cooperated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice since then.” The Times said that the case marks “the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporter’s data under President Trump.” With Wires