A Silver Spring man who worked as a linguist for the FBI was sentenced Monday to 20 months in prison for leaking secret documents to a blogger.  According to court records, the documents concerned “communication intelligence activities.”

Shamai K. Leibowitz worked for the U.S. State Department in 2006, teaching Hebrew and Israeli law and culture to American diplomats.Then was hired as a contractor by the U.S. Department of Defense at its Defense Language Institute.

Leibowitz said he accepted his mistake but said that, at the time he revealed the classified information, he believed the documents showed a “violation of the law.” He said he should have pursued other options within the government to report his concerns.

See:  The Washington Post