FBI Arrests Ex-Agent Who Claimed Rudy Giuliani ‘Compromised’ by Russians

A former FBI agent who previously claimed Rudy Giuliani was potentially “compromised” by Russia was arrested Monday by the FBI, court records filed Tuesday reveal.

Johnathan Buma was about to board a departing international flight at the John F. Kennedy International Airport when he was arrested by FBI agents, according to recently filed court documents. He was charged with disclosing confidential material, or violating 18 U.S. Code Section 1905.

Buma was an FBI Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent specializing in counterintelligence and counterproliferation issues. He submitted his letter of resignation to the bureau on Sunday, according to the filing.

On Oct. 27, 2023, Buma allegedly printed around 130 files from the agency’s internal network, the documents read.

He was also accused of printing nine text-file documents containing protected information originating from reports, according to the filing. Buma allegedly printed screenshots of communications between him and a confidential human source (CHS) on an encrypted app.

Buma subsequently notified FBI supervisors he was planning to go on leave without pay and subsequently left the FBI office, according to the documents. On Oct. 30, Buma allegedly posted excerpts of a draft from his book about his 15-year career at the FBI on social media.

His draft included information he acquired as an FBI Special Agent that pertained to the FBI’s investigations into “a foreign country’s weapons of mass destruction (“WMD”) program,” the documents allege.

Buma allegedly emailed personal associates helping him negotiate a deal with a publishing firm in November.

He “purported to ‘give authorization’ to the recipients to share information that was subject to restrictions against dissemination and that he became aware of in his capacity as an FBI special agent,” the documents allege. The bureau’s Prepublication Office confirmed in December 2023 and June 2024 that the defendant never reached out to secure a review of his book, the filing said.

An American media company eventually published an article with confidential information, according to the filing.

“In the fall of 2023, a U.S. media entity published an article containing confidential information related to an associate of a foreign government official and that BUMA knew he had a duty to protect,” the documents allege.

Federal law enforcement officials searched Buma’s residence in November 2023 and discovered he possessed FBI information, according to the filing. Agents did not find the documents Buma allegedly printed on his last day at the bureau, however.

Buma told Business Insider in 2023 that Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was potentially “compromised” by suspected Russian intelligence operatives.

“Rudy Giuliani may have been compromised by individuals suspected of being involved in Russian counterintelligence influence operations,” he told the outlet.

Buma filed whistleblower statements with Congress, detailing his claims about potential Russian influence.

He suspected the Russian Intelligence Service (RIS) was “pushing derogatory information into the U.S. Intelligence Community (USIC) that would give the opposing political party, which had been shown to be favored by the RIS, a narrative to attack the character of [Joe Biden],” according to a July 2023 statement to the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary independently obtained by The New Yorker.

Fifty-one former intelligence officials signed a letter in 2020 claiming that the emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop published in the New York Post had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”