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Treasury Official Charged with Leaking Confidential Reports on Trump Advisers to BuzzFeed

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A senior U.S. Treasury official has been arrested on charges of leaking sensitive financial reports concerning ex-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and other individuals to BuzzFeed News.

A complaint released by the Justice Department on Wednesday details that Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards, 40, a senior adviser at Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, began leaking documents known as Suspicious Activity Reports beginning in October 2017 and continued throughout the past year.

In addition to Manafort, “the highly confidential documents allegedly leaked by the employee also were related to former Trump campaign official Richard Gates, accused Russian agent Maria Butina, a suspected Russian money laundering entity and the Russian Embassy in Washington, according to a criminal complaint,” CNBC reported.

Edwards has been charged with one count of unauthorized disclosures of SARs and one count of conspiracy to make unauthorized disclosures of the reports.

“Banks file SARs confidentially in order to tip off law enforcement to potentially illegal financial transactions,” according to The Hill.

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The unauthorized document disclosures by Edwards are said in the complaint to have provided the basis for 12 news articles published by an unnamed news organization.

However, federal prosecutors list the headlines for six articles, which were published by BuzzFeed between October 2017 and as recently as this week.

The complaint said that Edwards “was in possession of a flash drive” that appeared to be the same device “on which she saved the unlawfully disclosed SARs.”

She also had in her possession “a cellphone containing numerous communications over an encrypted application in which she transmitted SARs and other sensitive government information.”

Would you say Edwards was part of the "deep state" based on her actions?

“When questioned by law enforcement officials (Tuesday), Edwards confessed she has provided SARs to (the reporter) via an encrypted application, through falsely denied knowing that (the reporter) intended to or did publish that information” through a news organization, the complaint stated.

The BuzzFeed articles, by Jason Leopold and Anthony Cormier, seek to draw connections between Trump and his presidential campaign and Russian interests.

“The articles cited documents transactions pertaining to Manafort and Gates, both of whom have since pleaded guilty to financial crimes related to their consulting work for a pro-Russia political party in Ukraine,” CNBC reported.

In a Monday story, BuzzFeed reported on dealings of the Russian-owned real estate company Prevezon Holdings. An attorney for the company helped arrange the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Manafort, Jared Kushner and Russian attorney Natalia Veselnitskaya, which had been billed to the campaign as a chance to get some “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement, “Edwards, a senior-level FinCEN employee, betrayed her position of trust by repeatedly disclosing highly sensitive information contained in Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to an individual not authorized to receive them. “

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“SARs, which are filed confidentially by banks and other financial institutions to alert law enforcement to potentially illegal transactions, are not public documents, and it is an independent federal crime to disclose them outside of one’s official duties,” Berman said.

In January 2017, then-President-elect Trump labeled Buzzfeed “fake news” for publishing the unverified Trump Russia dossier.

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Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




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