Ex-FBI analyst who kept classified info in bathroom like Trump going to prison in KC case
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A former FBI intelligence analyst from Dodge City, Kansas, who kept hundreds of classified documents at her home, including in her bathroom, was sentenced to nearly four years in prison by a federal judge in Kansas City on Wednesday for violating the same part of the Espionage Act that former President Donald Trump is accused of breaking.
The sentencing for willful retention of national defense information was the first since a federal grand jury indicted Trump earlier this month, accusing him of hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, keeping boxes of documents not only in a storage room but in a ballroom and bathroom as well.
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The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Stephen R. Bough, offered the first courtroom clue since Trump’s indictment about what the former president can expect if he is found guilty.
“I cannot fathom why you would jeopardize our nation by leaving these types of documents in your bathtub,” Bough said.
Bough, an Obama appointee, ordered the former analyst, Kendra Kingsbury, to spend three years and 10 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. He ordered her to surrender to federal authorities to begin her prison sentence on July 21.
Kingsbury, who had no plea agreement with prosecutors, pleaded guilty to two counts of violating 18 U.S.C. Section 793(e) last October. Trump has been indicted on 31 counts, in addition to counts of obstruction of justice and conspiracy.
A FBI special agent who helped investigate Kingsbury testified Wednesday that she had kept classified information, in both electronic and paper form throughout her home, including in a home office and bathroom. Her defense attorney, assistant public defender Marc Ermine, emphasized that some of the documents were electronic and that her home wasn’t full of “banker’s boxes” strewn about.
Kingsbury, who worked for the FBI’s Kansas City Division, unlawfully retained about 386 classified documents in total over the course of more than a dozen years at the agency. While prosecutors didn’t allege a motive, a sentencing memo filed this month says Kingsbury’s phone made and received calls with phone numbers associated with the subjects of counterterrorism investigations.
