By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com
A contract linguist with the FBI in Maryland who pleaded guilty in December to disclosing classified information to a blogger, has had his law license suspended in New York, according to the New York Law Journal.
The Law Journal reported that the Appellate Division, 3rd Department declined to set aside the suspension recommended by a disciplinary committee for Shamai Kedem Leibowitz, an Israeli-American lawyer, who had been translating intercepted phone calls for the FBI from Hebrew to English.
Leibowitz claimed his crime was “not motivated by venality, but rather by misguided patriotism.” The 39-year-old said he does contract work for N.Y. law firms to support his wife and 6-year-old twins, the Journal reported.
He pleaded guilty in December to leaking five classified documents to a blogger. His guilty plea calls for him to get 20 months in prison at the time of sentencing.
Following his guilty plea in December, Richard McFeely, head of the Baltimore FBI said in a statement: “As a trusted member of the FBI ranks, Leibowitz abused the trust of the FBI and the American public by using his access to classified information for his own purposes.”
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