FBI Analyst Stole Secret Counterterrorism, Other Documents: Feds

KANSAS CITY, MO — Kendra Kingsbury, a longtime employee of the FBI’s Kansas City Division office squirreled away documents containing state secrets about counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations for more than a decade at her home, putting the nation’s security at risk, the Justice Department said Friday.

Kingsbury, 48, of Dodge City, Kansas, made her initial appearance in a Kansas federal court Friday. She is charged with two counts of having unauthorized possession of documents relating to the national defense.

She was indicted by a federal grand jury Tuesday. Investigators found classified documents from June 2004 to December 2017 in Kingsbury’s home, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

The “breadth and depth” of classified national security information Kingsbury, an intelligence analyst with top security clearance, is accused of stealing is “simply astonishing,” Alan E. Kohler, the assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division, said in a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri.

The first count of the federal indictment accuses Kingsbury of stealing secret information about government efforts to defend the nation against counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyberthreats, and included details about open investigations.

Some documents included sensitive information about national security investigations, intelligence gaps regarding hostile foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations, and the FBI operations to defend the country against counterintelligence and counterterrorism targets.

The second count accuses Kingsbury of stealing secret documents containing details about intelligence sources and methods used by the government to collect information on terrorists and terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and suspected associates of Osama bin Laden, and information about emerging al-Qaida groups in Africa.

During her more than 12 years with the FBI’s Kansas City Division, Kingsbury worked on several squads, including those focused on illegal drug trafficking, violent crime, violent gangs and counterintelligence, and she had top security clearance for national defense and classified information, according to the release.

“Insider threats are a significant danger to our national security,” Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers of the Justice’s Departments National Security Division said in the release.

Though Kingsbury had access to the information she’s accused of stealing, she did not have a need to know most, or all, of the information contained in the documents, the Justice Department said.

She was suspended from her job in December 2017.

Acting U.S. Attorney Teresa Moore for the Western District of Missouri said Kingsbury jeopardized the community’s safety and nation’s security.

“Those entrusted with such grave responsibility must be held accountable if they violate their oath and betray their country,” Moore said in the release. “I appreciate the diligence and professionalism with which the FBI thoroughly investigated one of their own and brought the perpetrator to justice.”