Accused Treasury leaker had ‘co-conspirator’ in plot to spill dirt on Trump officials: court files
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The Treasury Department employee charged Wednesday with leaking confidential financial files related to former Trump associates had a “co-conspirator” at the department who also exchanged several-hundred messages with a journalist, according to the criminal complaint.
The court papers do not name the higher-ranking “co-conspirator,” who has not been charged. But the complaint referred to the person as an "associate director" at the department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to whom defendant Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards reported.
The complaint states that this “co-conspirator not named as a defendant” exchanged more than 300 messages with a reporter through an “encrypted application.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York – which brought the case against Edwards – declined to comment on the person referred to in the court papers, saying prosecutors “cannot comment outside of the person named in the complaint.”
The Washington Post cited sources in reporting the name of the person accused of being the “co-conspirator.”
That person could be reached for comment from Fox News on Thursday. A spokesman for FinCEN declined to comment.
Edwards, 40, a senior official at FinCEN, is accused of illegally giving a reporter bank reports documenting several suspicious financial transactions, known as Suspicious Activity Reports (“SARs”), from October 2017 to the present.
The documents said Edwards “initially” denied having contact with members of the media, though told the FBI she was aware that the unnamed person – as well as another FinCEN employee – had communicated with the news media.
The financial transactions involved Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort, campaign official Richard Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina and the Russian Embassy, federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday.
Edwards’ dramatic arrest late Tuesday came on the heels of other high-profile, leak-related prosecutions under the Trump administration, which has pledged to go on the offensive against leakers that the president has called "traitors and cowards."
Prosecutors said Edwards saved thousands of SARs, "along with thousands of other files containing sensitive government information," to a government-provided flash drive.
She transmitted the SARs to the reporter by "taking photographs of them and texting the photographs" using an encrypted application, according to charging documents, which said Edwards eventually confessed to doing so. FBI agents obtained a pen register and trap and trace order for Edwards' cellphone during their investigation.
The files were allegedly saved to a folder on the flash drive with the file path "Debacle\Emails\Asshat."
"Edwards is not known to be involved in any official FinCEN project or task bearing these file titles or code names," federal authorities said.
The flash drive contained not only SARs, but also "highly sensitive material relating to Russia, Iran, and the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant," prosecutors said.
During her interviews with FBI agents, Edwards initially denied any contact with the news media and called herself a "whistleblower" who saved the SARs for "record-keeping," according to the criminal complaint. Prosecutors said Edwards had previously filed an unrelated whistleblower complaint, and had been in touch with congressional staffers regarding that complaint.
The journalist's name Edwards allegedly spoke with was not disclosed in court papers. But the documents list about a dozen stories published by Buzzfeed News over the past year-and-a half, including an article headlined, "GOP Operative Made 'Suspicious' Cash Withdrawals During Pursuit of Clinton Emails." Another article was titled, "These 13 Wire Transfers Are A Focus of the FBI Probe Into Paul Manafort."
The most recent BuzzFeed article cited in the charging documents was published on Monday.
The case is apparently the first criminal prosecution arising from leaks about individuals targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team in the course of its Russia investigation. Manafort was found guilty earlier this year of various bank and tax crimes; his associate, Gates, pleaded guilty.
In a hearing Wednesday afternoon, federal magistrate judge Theresa Buchanan released Edwards, subject to the custody of her parents. She and her parents also signed a $100,000 bond as part of her release. Edwards, who appeared in court wearing street clothes, faces two charges (one for unlawful disclosure and one for conspiring to unlawfully disclose), each one carrying a maximum sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine. She is due back in court Nov. 2.
Edwards is on administrative leave at Treasury, a FinCen spokesman said Wednesday.
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She's on administrative leave???
A: Government agency, government employee, government rules.
B: Innocent until convicted.
C: Not likely to win her case based on the "whistle blower" defense, but she's entitled to try.
Although you are right that this woman and her alleged co conspirator should be innocent until proven guilty, I find it amusing that the left all of a sudden believes in this. Would have helped during the Kavanaugh debacle.
My bad, I thought the topic was government Administrative leave.
Not Kavanaugh,
and not "the left"'.
All you had to do was read the "tags".
It's very much about THE LEFT & THE RESISTANCE
And your'e not being sarcastic, right?
E.A Err I am Apolitical, but I think this makes YOUR point clearly!
"
The most recent BuzzFeed article cited in the charging documents was published on Monday.
The case is apparently the first criminal prosecution arising from leaks about individuals targeted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team in the course of its Russia investigation. Manafort was found guilty earlier this year of various bank and tax crimes; his associate, Gates, pleaded guilty."
All those leaks that tormented the Trump administration were obviously coming from within government. We knew that from the beginning. This one was working at the Treasury and leaks out personal information of individuals (Trump & Manafort), which is a serious breach of her position. She most likely will be the first to be made an example of, but we still have those individuals at FBI & DOJ who leaked. That's the main course as far as I'm concerned.
Oh the tags, lol, are they part of the seed?
They are subjective, especially the "Deep State" and reflect your opinions.
And you're not being sarcastic, right?
When a Treasury employee plus maybe her supervisor leak what they consider damaging info on President Trump, I have to call it what it is - Deep State Resistance. You don't think so? Really?
And you're not being sarcastic, right?
I'm being genuine
E.A Right but as we have seen in the past, present and Future TRUTH is not what is wanted!!
I know...It's so damn hard to nail those in Federal agencies. Note all the Civil Service protections listed in Post # 3.1 That is just part of the problem the other issue is who and how many may be involved. Agency heads will stonewall investigations for long periods of time, if they themselves are involved. Don't you think some of them are praying the dems win the House in November. That would end a few investigations.
It's not a partisan problem.
The Administrative Leave Act was a GOP sponsored Bill passed overwhelmingly in the House and attached to the National Defense Act of 2017
which passed the Senate 92-7 and signed by Obama 12/23/16.
It has been untouched by the Trump Administration.
But a problem nonetheless
Of course, what is partisan is the deep state leaks against this President
2 Five year counts and fines that should total $500,000. She'll have her day in court.
Assuming she's found guilty by a jury of her peers...
Meanwhile, according to the rules, she must first be placed on Admin leave (with pay & benefits) for no more than 10 workdays,
followed by no more than 90 workdays ( with pay & benefits) of Investigate Leave, if approved.
reading the entirety of the rules is exhausting but it seems that Treasury will be expected to reassign her to work somewhere else, or more likely
remotely from home in some mundane job function until she pleads guilty or loses in court.
Even if she wins, her career at FinCen is over.
Not likely to win either.
Nope
A Baylor student accused of multiple sexual offenses against a fellow student (who ended up hospitalized)
faced with insurmountable evidence somehow just ended up with a plea deal for a 3 year suspended sentence for indecent assault, no sex predator requirements,
all sex charges, rape, etc dropped. And after probation and counselling will be able to expunge the record.
There is no way to guess how a trial will turn out in this country anymore, regardless of the evidence.
That's kind of off topic, don't you think?
[deleted]
No, we were both assuming that overwhelming evidence will result in a conviction.
You think, or are hoping, that she will get the maximum penalties.
I think there will eventually be some kind of plea bargain.
There are simply too many cases of obvious guilt thrown out, plead down or ignored by juries to be certain about this case.
Correct
You think, or are hoping, that she will get the maximum penalties.
Absolutely, Yes, I am. I haven't seen any action taken when it comes to Federal agency employees going back to Lois Lerner. I think it is time to start somewhere. This was pretty blatant. There are many more that were trying to obstruct or remove this President.
"Edwards’ dramatic arrest late Tuesday came on the heels of other high-profile, leak-related prosecutions under the Trump administration, which has pledged to go on the offensive against leakers that the president has called "traitors and cowards."
I find it rather humorous that whistle-blowers exposing "Suspicious Activity Reports", not making them up, just exposing them, are considered the "traitors and cowards", not the criminals in Trumps orbit who were committing financial fraud and got exposed.
It's like a pedophile priest complaining about some other priest ratting on them, "Have you no respect for Priestly confidentiality?!". No, I couldn't give two chits about the rules about exposing pedophiles when they show no regard for the law against exposing themselves to our children. And I don't give two chits about leakers who leak the illegal activity of those in power no matter how badly it damages the criminals reputation or their political parties reputation.
You feel she is a "whistle-blower".
Do you remember how the previous administration handled such "whistle-blowers"?
BTW, here's another "whistle-blower":
"A Minnesota judge on Thursday sentenced a former FBI agent to four years behind bars after the man reportedly confessed to giving classified defense documents to a reporter.
U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright told Terry James Albury, 39, who pleaded guilty earlier this year, that he “knowingly” committed the crime despite its illegality, according to The Associated Press.
“You did so willingly. You knew that what you did was a criminal act, and you knew that you were putting the nation's security at risk,” the judge told Albury.
The 4-year prison term matches the seriousness of the crime, Wright said, and should serve as a deterrent to others.
Prosecutors labeled Albury’s actions a betrayal of the public’s trust when he stole more than 70 documents, dozens of which were considered classified, The Associated Press reported. A “secret” document pertaining to how the bureau assesses confidential informants was reportedly among the records he provided to an online news organization.
Lock her up with fellow leakers like Reality Winner. These traitors need to be made examples of.