During the first year of the Trump administration, the FBI formed a secret unit to counter media leaks.
The Young Turks' Ken Klippenstein learned of the unit through heavily-redacted documents acquired through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
“By law, the FBI is the lead federal agency responsible for the investigation of violations of the espionage laws of the United States,” one document from November 2017 read.
“The complicated nature of — and rapid growth in — unauthorized disclosure and media leak threats and investigations has necessitated the establishment of a new Unit,” the document continued.
TYT noted that "the document date stamps appear to conflict with the earlier claim by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in August 2017 that the FBI had already created a new counterintelligence unit to manage leak investigations."
As of November 2017, Sessions commented publicly that the Justice Department "had increased its leak probes by 800" percent, Klippenstein reported.
You can read the documents released via TYT's FOIA request below:
FBI Media Leak Unit by on Scribd
