NEW YORK (AP) — An FBI agent who publicly accused the agency of a pro-Trump bias has been arrested and charged with disclosing confidential records after authorities say he included sensitive material about investigations and informants into a draft of his memoir.
Johnathan Buma, who claimed in 2023 that the FBI went after President Joe Biden’s son Hunter while stifling his own investigation of President Donald Trump’s ally Rudy Giuliani, was arrested Monday at Kennedy Airport in New York as he was about to board a flight out of the country, authorities said.
In the draft of his book, Buma described himself as “the most significant whistleblower in FBI history.”
Federal prosecutors in California, where Buma had worked as a counterintelligence agent, charged him on Tuesday with a single count of disclosure of confidential information. He faces up to one year in prison.
Buma submitted a letter of resignation Sunday, according to an affidavit prepared by an FBI agent involved in the investigation. The probe into Buma began well before Trump took office for his second term. The FBI searched Buma’s home in late 2023, when Biden was in office.
After filing a whistleblower complaint and testifying before Congress, the court affidavit said Buma went to his FBI office in Orange County, California, in October 2023 and printed copies of about 130 secret files, including information provided by confidential informants, the affidavit said.
Some of that information also appeared in a draft of Buma’s book.
Buma posted excerpts of the draft on social media and emailed copies to associates.
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