FBI Agent Who Accused the Bureau of Bias Charged With Disclosing Classified Info

Johnathan Buma was arrested in New York City while waiting to board an international flight.

An FBI agent who accused the bureau of political bias during President Donald Trump’s first administration has been arrested on charges related to the alleged unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.

Johnathan Buma, a 15-year veteran of the FBI, was taken into custody on March 17 at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport while waiting to board a flight out of the country, according to charging documents filed on March 18.

According to court filings, Buma allegedly shared internal documents and other sensitive information when he circulated a draft of a book about his career as an FBI agent among his associates.

“The book draft contained information that Buma obtained through his position as an FBI Special Agent that relates to the FBI’s efforts and investigations into a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction program,” a criminal complaint reads.

The complaint alleges that beginning in October 2023, Buma “printed approximately 130 files from the FBI’s internal network,” some of which contained classified details from confidential informants. Several of these documents were “clearly marked with warnings” indicating they were protected information.

Buma also printed nine documents containing text that had been “copied and pasted from reports” that were marked as protected information and contained information from confidential informants, according to the complaint.

After obtaining the materials, Buma allegedly informed FBI supervisors of his intention to take unpaid leave before departing from his office. Authorities said that in the ensuing months, he circulated a draft of his book via email to several individuals assisting him in negotiating a book deal and purported to authorize them to share confidential information.

The charges were filed in the U.S. Central District of California, where Buma has a home.

Buma spoke out against the FBI prior to the alleged misconduct. In July 2023, he testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, accusing senior bureau officials of suppressing intelligence related to his investigations into Trump’s former attorney Rudy Giuliani and claimed he faced retaliation as a result.

“I do not fully understand why I have been singled out for this treatment nor who exactly is driving it,” Buma said in testimony to the Senate committee. “But my strong suspicion is that one or more of my sources provided truthful, accurate information that is harmful to a person or persons that higher-ups in the Bureau are trying to shield.”

In a September 2023 interview with Business Insider, Buma recounted an incident from four years earlier when he had presented information to a supervisor at the FBI’s Los Angeles field office regarding potential criminal activity in the business dealings of Hunter Biden, son of former President Joe Biden, with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Buma said his boss was “very interested” and “adamant” about pursuing the case.

In the same meeting, according to Buma, his supervisor immediately shut him down after he suggested that Giuliani might have been “compromised” in a Russian counter-influence operation.

In November 2023, the FBI searched Buma’s California home as part of an investigation into his handling of classified information. Scott Horton, an attorney representing Buma at the time, denied any wrongdoing and insisted that the search yielded no classified materials.

Buma’s attorney in this case could not be immediately reached for comment.

The U.S. Department of Justice didn’t respond to a request for comment by publication time.