A federal judge in Manhattan is faulting the Justice Department for failing to obey his order to provide updates on its criminal investigation into the FBI's leaks to the press of information in an insider trading case.
In an order dated June 16, 2017, Judge P. Kevin Castel of U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York writes, "In the case before this court, a supervisory special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation leaked grand jury information to journalists without authority to do so." The judge noted that a knowing violation of the rule against leaking grand jury materials is punishable as contempt of court. Judge Castel had ordered the updates on the criminal investigation into the leaks, but complains in his order that the latest update doesn't meet his standards.
The judge writes:
The Acting Chief of the Public Integrity Section has submitted a purported report ex parte and under seal which provides no meaningful information. The four lines of text (beyond the introductory and concluding sentences) contain virtually no substance. What the Court learns is that the Section and the Inspector General are "continuing to investigate this matter," they have obtained records and conducted multiple interviews and "their review of these materials is ongoing." That is it.
The Acting Chief of the Public Integrity Section is ordered to resubmit the report, providing meaningful information about the investigations and their expected duration, within fourteen days of this Order.
FutureOfCapitalism.com will stay with this ongoing story, which isn't being covered elsewhere, but which is highly newsworthy in the context of national political attention to the FBI, unauthorized leaks, and insider trading.
The case is United States of America against William Walters, 16-cr-338.
