Ex-FBI agent gets 4 years in prison for leaking documents

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A former FBI agent in Minnesota who admitted to leaking classified defense documents to a reporter was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

Terry James Albury, 39, pleaded guilty in April to one count each of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and unauthorized retention of national defense information.

Prosecutors had asked Albury be sentenced to more than four years in prison, saying he betrayed public trust when he stole more than 70 documents, including 50 classified papers. The information he shared with an online news organization included a document classified as "secret" relating to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.

Albury's defense attorneys asked for probation, saying he acted patriotically and was morally conflicted by the FBI's counterterrorism policies he viewed as racial profiling.

The Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have made prosecuting government employees who leak sensitive information to the media a priority. Sessions said last year the Justice Department had more than tripled the number of active leak investigations since President Barack Obama left office.

Legal scholars also weighed in on the sentencing. A group of 17 scholars who focus on constitutional law, First Amendment law and media law filed a brief asking the court to craft a punishment to weigh the constitutional protection of free speech and the public's interest in Albury's disclosure against any harm to national security.