FBI probing Senate Intel Democrats for possible classified leaks, spurred by NSA criminal referral

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The FBI has opened an investigation into possible leaks of classified information by Democrats or their staffs on the Senate Intelligence Committee, spurred in part by a criminal referral from the National Security Agency concerning the release of one of its overseas intercepts, sources told Just the News.

The NSA made the referral last summer concerning reports, including one in The New York Times, earlier that year during Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation process that quoted information from an intercept of two Hezbollah terrorist figures who claimed Gabbard, during a 2017 trip to Syria, had met with the “big guy.”

The Times suggested the reference was taken by some to mean Gabbard had met with a top Hezbollah terrorist leader, a claim she adamantly denied.

NSA concluded the leak accurately contained information from one of its intercepts but that Gabbard had not in fact met with Hezbollah leaders.

The spy agency identified potential leakers among Senate Intelligence Committee Democrat staff who had access to the intercept prior to the Times report, sources said.

The referral languished inside the Justice Department for months – with top leaders unaware of the concerns – until FBI Director Kash Patel was alerted to the existence of the referral a few weeks ago.

Since then, FBI counterintelligence and criminal agents have ramped up their probe and expanded to other potential leaks and media contacts tied to the committee’s Democrats, sources said.

The new probe is the latest to emerge from a Trump administration crackdown on the leaks of classified secrets led by the FBI.

Over the last 15 months, that crackdown has led to major indictments by the Justice Department of figures ranging from former National Security Advisor John Bolton to a former Army employee accused last month of leaking to a journalist.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has been the focus of past major leaks probes, including a case in 2018 that eventually led its former security chief James Wolfe to plead guilty to lying to the FBI about his leaks of nonpublic information to a reporter.