A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a former Treasury Department employee to six months in prison on charges she leaked sensitive financial reports about individuals connected to former President Donald Trump.
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards pleaded guilty in January to one count of unlawfully disclosing suspicious activity reports related to Trump allies Paul Manafort and Rick Gates to a BuzzFeed reporter. She was arrested on the charges in 2018.
Federal prosecutors said the reporter published the information in 12 news articles.
“Today’s sentence demonstrates that public servants who abuse the power entrusted to them will face steep consequences for their actions,” U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said Thursday. “Maintaining the confidentiality of SARs, which are filed by banks and other financial institutions to alert law enforcement to potentially illegal transactions, is critical to preserve the integrity of myriad investigations, and the financial privacy of individuals.
“Government employees entrusted with such highly sensitive information owe a duty to safeguard that information. The defendant abused that trust to serve her own purposes, broke the law, and now faces time in a federal prison for her actions.”
Edwards worked for the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN at the time of the disclosure.
SARs are used to alert officials about potentially criminal financial transactions. FinCEN manages the Treasury Department’s collection of SARs.
Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to bank fraud and money laundering charges stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump pardoned Manafort before leaving office.
Gates, Manafort’s former business associate, pleaded guilty in February to lying to the FBI and defrauding the U.S. government, charges also stemming from the Mueller probe. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail.
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A relative of Lois Lerner?? Hang ’em High (or even sober). Such garbage think they are smarter and more righteous than the voting citizens, so take out the garbage. Maybe after seeing Fauci’s emails, the citizens will finally decide they have had enough of “public servant bureaucrats” lording it over them like they are peasants.
How’s about we get LEAKS OF FAUCIS finances!
6 months, BFD. She should have gotten at least 5 years and really deserves more. Another fine example of someone in the administrative state getting little or no punishment. Remember how Lois Lerner was allowed to retire with a nice pension when she should still be in prison today.
AND what’s the betting, this peon, will STILL GET ITS pension!
Strange indeed that a judge would only issue a Jail sentences but no financial penalties on case that involved Leaking FINANCIAL REPORTS? Seems the penalties given were a bit leaky themselves. Too many politicians will risk jail time which can be pardoned and lowered once the public has lost interest, just so long as the money gleaned in the crime remains to live another day, and finance more corruption. No wonder our treasury is empty.
Louis Learner went after me!! Used my tax info to send me a bogus tax bill all because I was a member of a Virginia Tea Party I found out later. Tax attorney’s kept telling me the charges were wrong but someone must have it out for me. When Trump got in office I thought he’d go after Learner. He said he would but then the rino’s talked him out of it. Learner did admit to Congress that she was put in this particular job by President O’Liar and his hatred of Tea Party members. She’s collecting a nice fat retirement check now. **** all Democrats. There has never been one honest one ever.
Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, you have so many names, you do not know who you are. You are a crook and you received a soft sentence. A slap on the hand for what you did.