Federal prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation after the FBI raided the home of a suspected second whistleblower who passed on secret government documents about a terror watch list.
Unnamed law enforcement and intelligence sources briefed on the case told Michael Isikoff at Yahoo News about the raid and investigation by prosecutors in Northern Virginia.
However, there could be signs that the Justice Department is more reluctant these days to prosecute those who illegally hand over sensitive documents to the media, after heavy criticism in the way it has gone after leakers in the past.
“Investigators are continuing to pursue it, but are not ready to charge yet,” one source told the reporter.
The case dates back to a story published on Glenn Greenwald site The Intercept back in early August.
Based on newly leaked documents, it claimed 40% of people on a government terrorist watch list of 680,000 names have no “recognized terrorist group affiliation,” raising the question of why they are still on the list.
It also revealed that a US ‘no fly’ list had swelled to 47,000 names – the highest figure since it was created 13 years ago.
Both lists are part of the larger Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), used by agencies including the CIA, NSA and FBI.
The documents were marked as ‘Secret’ and ‘NOFORN’ – ie not to be shared with foreign governments. This means they were not as sensitive as those leaked by Snowden, although still embarrassing for Washington.
The unnamed ‘source in the intelligence community’ that leaked them and whose house was potentially raided by the FBI recently, was referenced by Greenwald and Edward Snowden in a scene from the new documentary Citizenfour.
Snowden describes the leaker as “incredibly bold” while Greenwald replies “it was motivated by what you did.”
Another indicator that the documents couldn’t have been leaked by Snowden is that some are dated August 2013, after he fled to Hong Kong.