news

Former FBI analyst sentenced to nearly 4 years for illegally retaining classified docs

Kendra Kingsbury's case shares some similarities with the one involving former President Donald Trump and the classified documents found at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.

Federal Bureau Of Investigation emblem is seen on the headquarters building in Washington D.C., United States, on October 20, 2022.
Getty Images

A former FBI intelligence analyst was sentenced Wednesday to nearly four years in prison for illegally retaining hundreds of classified documents at her home.

Kendra Kingsbury, 50, of Garden City, Kansas, was sentenced to three years and 10 months in federal prison without parole by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough.

In October, Kingsbury pleaded guilty to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. Similar to the charges facing former President Donald Trump, Kingsbury's case involved alleged violations of the Espionage Act.

Kingsbury, who held a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance and served as an intelligence analyst for the FBI for more than 12 years, was accused of repeatedly removing sensitive government materials from a secure workspace. Some of the documents she removed and retained in her North Kansas City residence included national defense-related classified documents.

Prosecutors alleged in court documents that Kingsbury improperly removed and unlawfully retained approximately 386 classified documents. The retained documents were stored in various formats, including hard drives and compact discs, prosecutors said.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors said, "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."

Read the full story on NBCNews.com here.

Contact Us