Terry James Albury shared information with an online news organisation that included a document classified as "secret" that related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.
A former FBI agent in Minnesota who admitted to leaking classified defense documents to a reporter was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison.
Terry James Albury, 39, pleaded guilty in April to one count each of unauthorised disclosure of national defense information and unauthorised retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors had asked that Albury be sentenced to more than four years in prison, saying he betrayed public trust when he stole more than 70 documents, including 50 that were classified.
The information he shared with an online news organisation included a document classified as "secret" that related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.
Albury's defense attorneys asked for probation, saying he acted patriotically and was morally conflicted by the FBI's counterterrorism policies that he viewed as racial profiling.
The Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions have made prosecuting government employees who leak sensitive information to the media a priority.
Sessions said last year that the Justice Department had more than tripled the number of active leak investigations since President Barack Obama left office.
Albury was accused of sharing documents with an online news organisation, including one document, dated August 17, 2011, that related to how the FBI assesses confidential informants.
The date of that document and its subject matter corresponded with a January 31, 2017 story on The Intercept.
Legal scholars also weighed in on the sentencing.
A group of 17 scholars who focus on constitutional law, First Amendment law and media law filed a brief asking the court to craft a punishment that would weigh the constitutional protection of free speech and the public's interest in Albury's disclosure against any harm to national security.
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