A former FBI employee with a top secret security clearance was indicted Tuesday for stealing and retaining national security documents at her residence for more than 12 years, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reported Friday.
Kendra Kingsbury, 48, of Dodge City, Kansas, allegedly removed highly sensitive government materials and willfully retained them at her home from 2004 until her eventual suspension in 2017, according to the press release by the DOJ.
FBI Employee Indicted for Illegally Removing National Security Documents, Taking Material to Her Home https://t.co/VIQT41qKAy
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) May 21, 2021
Kingsbury has been charged with two counts of willful retention of national defense information, the indictment shows.
“The breadth and depth of classified national security information retained by the defendant for more than a decade is simply astonishing,” junior assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division Alan Kohler said, according to the DOJ. (RELATED: Air Force Contractor Pleads Guilty To Stealing Over 2,500 Pages Of Classified Documents)
Count one of the indictment stems from the defendant’s unauthorized possession of classified FBI documents describing the U.S. government’s sources and methods of defending against “counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and cyber threats,” the document reads.
Count two of the indictment relates to Kingsbury’s alleged possession and control over documents detailing the government’s “efforts to collect intelligence on terrorist groups,” according to the document.
“Kingsbury is alleged to have violated our nation’s trust by stealing and retaining classified documents in her home for years. Insider threats are a significant danger to our national security, and we will continue to work relentlessly to identify, pursue and prosecute individuals who pose such a threat,” according to the DOJ.
Kingsbury now faces the maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, according to the indictment.