During his testimony, Former Senate Intelligence Committee security director James Wolfe maintained that he never jeopardized national security nor passed classified information without permission. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Legal Ex-Senate aide gets 2 months in prison for lying to FBI James Wolfe admitted to misleading investigators about his interactions with journalists.

Former Senate Intelligence Committee security director James Wolfe was sentenced on Thursday to two months in prison for lying to the FBI about his interactions with journalists.

The FBI was talking to Wolfe as part of a broader attempt to find out who was leaking details about surveillance targets in the government's investigation of potential coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.


The sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson fell well short of the two years that prosecutors recommended. However, the judge also rebuffed Wolfe’s lawyers request that he be spared jail and put on probation.

Wolfe, 58, pleaded guilty last October to a felony false statement charge for lying to the FBI, but did not admit to leaking classified information. He did, however, concede discussing unclassified but non-public information with reporters in violation of Senate Intelligence Committee rules.

Wolfe and his lawyers argued that he deceived the FBI because he wanted to cover up an extramarital relationship with a reporter. He feared that its disclosure would distress his family and cost him his job, they said.

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In a recent court filing, prosecutors accused Wolfe of regularly sharing sensitive information with “multiple young, female reporters."

Wolfe in his guilty plea admitted to lying about his contacts with four reporters. None of them are named, but one appears to be Ali Watkins, a New York Times journalist who formerly worked for BuzzFeed and POLITICO.

Wolfe conceded that he initially denied any personal relationship with any of these reporters to the FBI, but after being confronted with photographs of himself and Watkins, he acknowledged having a personal relationship with her for several years.

The FBI probe that snared Wolfe appears to have centered on disclosures of information about a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant obtained on Carter Page, an energy policy expert who served for a time as a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign.

Prosecutors have not produced evidence that Wolfe leaked classified information from that warrant, but documents show he briefed reporters about the Senate committee’s service of a subpoena on Page and shared details about his comings and goings at the committee.

Page sent a brief to the judge in advance of Wolfe’s sentencing. Jackson said she didn’t plan to consider it, but would make it public.

As the sentencing unfolded Thursday, Page disputed Wolfe’s claims that he had not put national security at risk.

“My amicus brief which will be subsequently unsealed by the Court shows how his misinformation campaign in conjunction with other SSCI colleagues DID jeopardize national security,” Page wrote on Twitter.

While Senate Intelligence Committee leaders have railed against leaks in recent years and called for aggressive efforts to root out leakers, those same senators asked the judge not to jail Wolfe, who worked for the panel for nearly three decades.

“Jim has already lost much through these events, to include his career and reputation, and we do not believe there is any public utility in depriving him of his freedom,” Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), ranking member Mark Warner (D-Va.) and former Chairman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wrote in a letter filed with the court last week.

Much of the approximately two-hour-long sentencing consisted of the Wolfe’s lawyer Preston Burton and Assistant U.S. attorney Jocelyn Ballantine attempting to convince Judge Ketanji Jackson to either stick with federal sentencing recommendations of between zero and six months, or exercise her authority to impose a more severe sentence.

Ballantine argued the damage from Wolfe’s lies threatened national security and that his position as a high-ranking public official makes him more acutely aware of the consequences of his actions.

Burton, however, citing several testimonies by family, friends, colleagues and sitting U.S. senators, rebutted that Wolfe had a strong character and that his lies were a lapse of judgment that should be assessed independently of the leaks. Burton reiterated that Wolfe was not charged with leaking classified information – only lying to the FBI.

Throughout most of the hearing, Jackson asked Wolfe to stay seated, and he initially kept a steady composure. His son, dressed in uniform and coming from his deployment in Korea, and his wife, Jane Rhodes Wolfe, were also in the courtroom.

But as the hearing went on, Wolfe could be seen wiping tears from his eyes. When he approached the lectern to give a statement, his voice repeatedly broke and paused, and Jackson herself handed him a tissue box.

During his testimony, Wolfe repeatedly apologized for lying. But he maintained that he never jeopardized national security nor passed classified information without permission.

“I lied about [my contacts] to protect my wife, my sons, and selfishly, I lied about them to protect myself and my job,” Wolfe said, taking long pauses between words.

Jane Wolfe sat transfixed in her bench, gripping a pink rosary, while her son quietly wiped away tears.

Jackson said she had no reason to doubt that James Wolfe is a person of solid character as the several letters suggested. And she rejected the prosecution’s claim that his actions other than his lying, including leaking information and having an affair, were relevant in sentencing.

“We have to isolate what is criminal and what is not,” Jackson said. “Having an affair is not a crime … even giving a reporter sensitive but non-classified information is not a crime. The only charge we’re talking about is lying to the FBI.”

Still, she rejected the idea that Wolfe’s associations with senators and high position in the government should grant him any clemency, arguing his office should have made him more aware of the consequences of his actions.

“The more one has to lose, the more reckless it is to engage in breaking the law,” Jackson said.

Jackson closed the court wishing Wolfe “good luck.”

Wolfe did not answer offer comment to reporters as he left the courthouse in a Cadillac SUV.