Kash Patel’s FBI has shown that it will not tolerate subversive, corrupt agents with the arrest of Johnathan Buma, a former agent who previously accused the bureau of political bias during President Trump’s first term and went on to allegedly share sensitive documents on the internet.
For background, on March 17, 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice announced in a press release that Johnathan Buma, a former FBI agent, was arrested “based on probable cause” and accusations that he had accessed the FBI’s confidential network and printed out sensitive information that he shared online.
According to the DOJ’s press release, Buma was “a former FBI Special Agent previously assigned to the Orange County Resident Agency in California, with press accounts confirming that Buma had announced that he would go on unpaid leave in 2023. Furthermore, Buma was arrested due to a criminal complaint “charging him with one count of Disclosure of Confidential Information.”
Moreover, the press release explained that Buma was accused of accessing the FBI’s internal network and having “printed files, text-file documents containing information from FBI confidential human sources (CHS) reports, and screenshots of messages exchanged with FBI CHSs.” In addition, USA Today reported that Buma intended to use these files as sources for a book and shared them on the internet, saying he would become “the most significant whistleblower in FBI history.”
Explaining further, the DOJ wrote, “On or about November 2, 2023, Buma caused information to be shared with a publishing company that was subject to restrictions against dissemination and that he became aware of in his capacity as an FBI Special Agent.” Moreover, according to USA Today, Buma, upon sharing the documents, said he was “one of the nation’s top performing counterintelligence agents at catching and flipping Russian spies.”
Importantly, prior to sharing the confidential materials in 2023, Buma vehemently criticized the FBI in a whistleblower complaint that accused the agency of “numerous acts of intelligence suppression.” Moreover, on November 14, 2023, Buma’s home was reportedly raided by the FBI. In response, Buma’s attorney, Scott Horton, told Business Insider, “There was no classified information found by the raid,” adding, “I know that from talking to my client.”
Following Buma’s arrest, a Change.org petition was created calling for justice, with the creators writing, “This arrest seems like an attempt to silence a man who stood up for transparency. Whistleblowers are vital to accountability, and punishing them undermines justice and democracy.” However, the petition only received 99 signatures.
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In addition, according to coverage from CBS News, Buma was arrested while on his way to board an international flight out of JFK International Airport, and he was apprehended before the flight took off. Moreover, CBS reported that Buma served in the FBI’s Los Angeles division for 15 years, specializing in counterintelligence.
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