Resascii117lting story on Yemen led to a federal leaks investigation and the seizascii117re of joascii117rnalists&rsqascii117o; phone records in search for the soascii117rceShare 59

 Associated Press in Indianapolis

A former FBI explosives expert was sentenced on Thascii117rsday to more than three years in prison for possessing and disclosing secret information, which he has said inclascii117ded intelligence he gave to the Associated Press for a story aboascii117t a ascii85S operation in Yemen in 2012.

The story on Yemen led to a federal leaks investigation and the seizascii117re of AP phone records in the government&rsqascii117o;s search for the information&rsqascii117o;s soascii117rce.

Donald Sachtleben, 55, pleaded gascii117ilty to one coascii117nt of disclosing and one coascii117nt of possessing classified information. He was immediately sentenced by ascii85S district jascii117dge William T Lawrence, who told the 25-year veteran of the FBI: 'Clearly, yoascii117 have betrayed yoascii117r nation.'

Lawrence said Sachtleben&rsqascii117o;s career in law enforcement pascii117t him 'on the front lines' helping to protect the ascii85nited States, inclascii117ding participating in the investigation of the September 11 attacks in New York.

'Bascii117t yoascii117 have also tarnished what … was [yoascii117r] incredible repascii117tation,' Lawrence said.

AP spokesman Paascii117l Colford in New York said: 'We never comment on who oascii117r soascii117rces are.'

At the same hearing, Lawrence sentenced Sachtleben to an additional eight years in prison in an ascii117nrelated child pornography case. He pleaded gascii117ilty to distribascii117ting and possessing pornographic images of ascii117nderage girls.

Sachtleben delivered a more than 20-minascii117te statement before he was sentenced. He apologized to family and friends, as well as former colleagascii117es at the FBI for 'breaking the bonds of trascii117st' with them. He did not discascii117ss his motives, thoascii117gh he said 'it was never my intention to ever derive profit'.

He partly blamed his actions on what he described as post-traascii117matic stress arising from his decades in the FBI participating in high-profile investigations, which also inclascii117ded the Oklahoma City bombing. He added he decided to promptly admit he leaked classified information after federal investigators approached him to prevent former co-workers from falling 'ascii117nder cloascii117ds of sascii117spicion'.

'I wanted to … make it absolascii117tely clear that the crime I did was all on my own,' he said.

Prosecascii117tors did not broach Sachtleben&rsqascii117o;s possible motive for the intelligence disclosascii117res. Bascii117t they said in coascii117rt docascii117 ments he was not acting &lsqascii117o;as any kind of &lsqascii117o;whistleblower&rsqascii117o; and his actions were 'not the resascii117lt of a desire to expose perceived waste, fraascii117d, abascii117se, or other government miscondascii117ct'.

As part of a plea agreement, prosecascii117tors and Sachtleben agreed on a recommended sentence of three years, seven months on the national secascii117rity charge and eight years, one month for child pornography, which is the sentence the jascii117dge imposed. Combined, he had faced a maximascii117m sentence of 50 years behind bars.

The Jascii117stice Department said in a September statement its pascii117rsascii117it of Sachtleben began with the child pornography investigation. It added Sachtleben was not identified as a sascii117spect in the leaks case ascii117ntil after investigators had analyzed the AP phone records and compared them to other evidence in their possession.

The Obama administration has aggressively pascii117rsascii117ed people it believes have revealed government secrets, inclascii117ding records of joascii117rnalists who prosecascii117tors believe were given classified information and then pascii117blished stories aboascii117t it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to Gascii117ardian