NEW YORK (AP) – An FBI agent who publicly accused the agency of Pro Trump bias has been arrested and charged with disclosure of confidential records after authorities said they included sensitive material about the investigation and informant in his draft memoir.
Jonathan Buma allegedly claimed that in 2023 the FBI was chasing President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.
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In his draft book, Buma described himself as “the most important whistleblower in FBI history.”
Federal prosecutors in California charged him on Tuesday with a single count of confidential information disclosure as Buma worked as an anti-intelligent and anti-proliferation agent. The charges will be punished in prison for up to one year.
Buma filed a letter of resignation on Sunday, according to an affidavit prepared by the FBI agents involved in the investigation. An investigation into Buma’s actions began before Trump took office in his second term. The FBI searched for the Buma home in November 2023, when Biden took office.
A message seeking comment left Buma’s lawyer.
After filing a whistleblower complaint and testifying before Congress, the court affidavit said that Buma went to the FBI office in Orange County, California in October 2023 to print about 130 copies of confidential files. The file contained a summary of the information provided by the confidential informant, the identity of the informant, and screenshots of the text messages he exchanged with the informant, the affidavit said.
Some of that information also appeared in the draft Buma book, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Buma posted an excerpt of the draft on social media and emailed various people a copy after sending an email saying he was on unpaid leave. Among other things, the book contained information about the FBI investigation into foreign weapons of mass destruction programs, the affidavit states.
