Free Republic

While Mueller has cast a shadow over Trump for 18 months now, he has been almost entirely silent since he was brought out of retirement as a special counsel tasked with picking up the FBI investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US election, and “any links and/or coordination between the Russian government and individuals associated with the campaign of President Donald Trump”. The word integrity seems to be almost sewn into the fabric of his pin-striped suits. “It’s why [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein brought him into this role of special counsel,” Graff said, “because he is probably the...

New York Times reporter Ali Watkins' past tweets are raising eyebrows after revelations she had a three-year romantic relationship with a Senate Intelligence Committee aide now accused by federal prosecutors of leaking sensitive information to journalists, including herself. (Snip) In an April 2013 tweet, Watkins also tweeted about the fictional Netflix television show “House of Cards,” where a young reporter has an affair with an older member of Congress. “I wanted to be Zoe Barnes...until episode 4,” she tweeted. “Sleeping with your source- especially a vindictive congressman? #badlifechoice #HouseofCards”

Federal investigators seized the records of New York Times reporter Ali Watkins in relation to an investigation of leaks out of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), the Times reported Thursday night. (snip) Not only did it turn out to be the committee doing the leaking, Watkins knew the person doing the leaking on an intimate level.

Shortened title. Full tile: Breaking: Feinstein’s Former Intel Staffer Daniel Jones is Also Connected to NY Times Reporter in Leak Investigation Former Senate Intel Committee aide, James A. Wolfe, 57, was arrested on Thursday after the DOJ conducted an investigation into classified information leaks to reporters.

The recent arrest of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s former security director James Wolfe for lying to federal authorities about leaking to reporters has raised questions about the credibility and impartiality of the committee’s Russia probe. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation has been viewed — especially by Trump resisters — as the more serious and bipartisan of Congress’s efforts to look into Russian meddling and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. The House Intelligence Committee’s investigation was accused of partisanship and seen as less credible. But Wolfe’s arrest for leaking, in addition to other unaddressed behavior by the committee, suggests...

Editors at BuzzFeed were reportedly aware that one of their reporters engaged in a years-long romantic relationship with one of her top sources, the former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee who was indicted and arrested Thursday night for lying to FBI agents. According to the Daily Caller, Ali Watkins, employed as a national security reporter by BuzzFeed from November 2015 to May 2017, informed her superiors of her relationship with James Wolfe, yet none of her stories ever made note of the serious conflict of interest inherent in her covering the Senate Intelligence Committee.

uestions remain over whether BuzzFeed News acted ethically with a former employee, Ali Watkins, who had a romantic relationship with an indicted former security director for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Watkins told her BuzzFeed editors about her relationship with the individual, James Wolfe, who the Department of Justice has charged with lying to investigators during a leak probe, according to The New York Times, where Watkins now works as a national security reporter. BuzzFeed Editor-In-Chief Ben Smith said he would “not comment at all on a reporter’s sources in the middle of an unjustifiable leak hunt” when The...

James A. Wolfe, former director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee, lost everything when he was arrested by the FBI last night. A review of media reports on the background of the arrest suggests that the lure of romance with a nubile female journalism school student was his undoing. This is a story with at least two compelling themes: the apparent betrayal of national security by a veteran Senate staffer and the rise in a mere four years of a comely female reporter in a romantic relationship with Wolfe from unpaid undergraduate intern at McClatchy to the lofty post...

It is important not to get so granular we miss the big picture. The indictment of former senior senate intelligence committee staffer James Wolfe is filled with information to highlight a much bigger picture. [Indictment pdf here] Keeping with custom and a very familiar pattern, you will note the big DOJ/FBI investigative releases are timed to drop when President Trump is outside Washington DC. Note also, it was the Senate Intelligence Committee where Wolfe worked. CTH has continually stated the SSCI is one of the most corrupt committees in congress. It did not come as a surprise to see the...

Federal law enforcement officials secretly seized years’ worth of a New York Times reporter’s phone and email records this year in an investigation of classified information leaks. It was the first known instance of the Justice Department going after a reporter’s data under President Trump.The seizure — disclosed in a letter to the reporter, Ali Watkins — suggested that prosecutors under the Trump administration will continue the aggressive tactics employed under President Barack Obama. Mr. Trump has complained bitterly about leaks and demanded that law enforcement officials seek criminal charges against government officials involved in illegal and sometimes embarrassing disclosures...

A mysterious move by the Senate Wednesday night is part of a Justice Department inquiry into a former Senate Intelligence Committee aide who may have leaked classified information. The Senate unanimously approved a resolution allowing the committee to provide records to the Justice Department in response to a request related to the investigation. The aide's identity and the lawmaker for whom he or she worked is not clear, but on Thursday, The New York Times published an article saying that federal investigators had seized years' worth of email and phone records relating to one of its reporters, Ali Watkins.Watkins previously...

<p>Ali Watkins worked for Buzzfeed as the National Security Reporter from Nov 2015 to May 2017. During this time, the Russian Dossier was released. You can check her linkedin for this information.</p> <p>Dossier paid for with campaign funds from the clinton campaign and DNC.</p>

There is no question in my mind that the Department of Justice was absolutely justified in looking into reporter, Ali Watkins’s electronic records. Why do I say this? Due to her intimate relationship with government official James Wolfe, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s Director of Security from May 1987 to December 2017, her records became a matter of National Security. The fact that Wolfe lied to the FBI proves this. James Wolfe’s first allegiance was to the United States. He took an oath to safeguard classified and top secret material. On a daily basis he had access to the most...

From the indictment [Note Male-1 is Carter Page]: Reporter #1 is likely Manu Raju of CNN. Reporter #2 is definitely Ali Watkins of New York Times. Reporter #3 is likely Marianna Sotomayor of NBC Reporter #4 is likely Brian Ross of ABC Accepting there has been a great deal of work on the leak investigation; and accepting the purpose therein; the Wolfe indictment appears strategic in that it captures four of the largest media outlets within the net. Four mainstream media enterprises are now on notice. With more than six months of investigation, and with the timing of the indictment...

The news just broke. Former director of security for the Senate Select Committee on Inteligence has been arrested for leaking classified intel! But this is much bigger than it appears on the surface, and I’m going to attempt to explain why.....

The Department of Justice reportedly seized a New York Times reporter's phone and email records this year in an effort to probe the leaking of classified information, the first known instance of the DOJ going after a journalist's data under President Trump. The Times reported Thursday that the DOJ seized years' worth of records from journalist Ali Watkins's time as a reporter at BuzzFeed News and Politico before she joined The Times in 2017 as a federal law enforcement reporter, according to the report Thursday. Watkins was alerted by a prosecutor in February that the DOJ had years of records...

The former security director for the Senate Intelligence Committee had been in three-year relationship with a New York Times reporter. WASHINGTON — A longtime staffer for the Senate Intelligence Committee has been arrested on charges of lying to investigators probing the potential leaking of classified information, the Justice Department announced Thursday night. A federal grand jury indicted the staffer, James A. Wolfe, 58, on three counts of making false statements in December about contacts with reporters, including providing sensitive information related to the work of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which he served as security director for 29 years. He was...

Senior Justice Department officials announced late Thursday criminal charges against Senate Intelligence Committee’s long-time director of security James Wolfe. The indictment charges Wolfe with making false statements to the FBI and details how Wolfe passed classified information, including presumably information related to one-time Trump campaign aide Carter Page, to a series of media outlets, confirming long-standing suspicions of the career intelligence community’s complicity in leaks. The three-count indictment charges Wolfe with separate instances of making false statements to the FBI, not directly charging him for leaking classified information, but appearing to detail how he did allegedly leaked classified information to...

Washington (AFP) - Media watchdog groups expressed alarm Friday over the seizing of a journalist's records as part of a probe into intelligence leaks resulting in the indictment of a congressional staffer. The Justice Department late Thursday announced the indictment of James Wolfe, 58, on three counts of making false statements about his contacts with three reporters. As part of the probe, the Justice Department seized years of records related to two email accounts and a phone number belonging to New York Times reporter Ali Watkins, the newspaper reported. The seizing of records raises constitutional concerns about press freedom, activists...

Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page was the primary target of a Senate Select Intelligence Committee (SSIC) staffer indicted for lying about his contacts with reporters, according to an indictment released on Thursday. James Wolfe, the former director of security for the SSIC panel, was in contact with at least three reporters at around the time they published articles about Page, an energy consultant who is a central player in the investigations into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian government. Wolfe, 57, is charged with lying to the FBI during a Dec. 15, 2017 interview about whether he...