A former FBI intelligence analyst, Kendra Kingsbury, has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for unlawfully retaining classified documents at her home. U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough sentenced Kingsbury to three years and 10 months in federal prison without parole.
Kingsbury, a resident of Garden City, Kansas, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. Her case involved allegations of violating the Espionage Act, which is similar to the charges faced by former President Donald Trump.
As an intelligence analyst for the FBI with a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance, Kingsbury was accused of repeatedly taking sensitive government materials from a secure workspace and keeping them at her residence in North Kansas City. Some of the retained documents were classified and related to national defense.
According to court documents, prosecutors claimed that Kendra Kingsbury unlawfully took and kept approximately 386 classified documents. These documents were stored in different formats, such as hard drives and compact discs. Prosecutors also alleged that Kingsbury admitted to investigators that she retained and destroyed additional documents, which could have potentially contained classified or national defense-related information.
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors stated “The FBI ultimately determined that over 20,000 documents that originated either at the FBI or some other government agency were found in the defendant’s residence.”
Kingsbury’s actions of retaining classified information at her home posed a significant threat to national security, as “by retaining classified information in her home that would have, if in the wrong hands, revealed some of the government’s most important and secretive methods of collecting essential national security intelligence,” according to prosecutors.
Among the documents were classified as “SECRET” by the FBI, providing insight into intelligence sources, counterterrorism and counterintelligence efforts, and defense against cyberthreats. These documents also covered sensitive operations involving human sources in national security investigations, technical capabilities of the FBI, the agency’s objectives and priorities, and materials related to ongoing investigations.
Furthermore, the unlawfully retained documents included national defense information classified as “SECRET” by another government agency. This information encompassed intelligence sources and methods associated with the U.S. government’s efforts to gather intelligence on terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, as well as information about an individual believed to be connected to Osama bin Laden.
Prosecutors revealed that during the investigation, it was discovered that Kingsbury had “initiated searches” in classified FBI databases using information obtained from the sensitive and classified government materials found at her home.
The FBI’s inquiry into the removal of the documents “revealed more questions and concerns than answers”, according to prosecutors.
In defense of Kingsbury, her attorney, Marc Ermine, argued for probation, citing she “suffered from extensive health issues and family tragedies throughout her tenure with the FBI”, including the murder of a family member, which had a significant impact on her mental and physical well-being and caused challenges in her work.
At the time of her sentencing, Kingsbury’s attorneys did not respond immediately to a request for comment. It is worth noting that her sentencing occurs approximately two months before the scheduled trial date for former President Donald Trump, who is facing charges related to the removal and storage of classified and national defense information in his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the 31 felony counts associated with the retention of classified materials.
