A senior US Treasury Department employee was charged with leaking to a reporter confidential government reports about the financial transactions of Trump associates and others under scrutiny in the Special Counsel's probe of Russian election interference.
The charges reflect the latest move in the Trump Administration's effort to punish leakers within the government. Earlier this week, a former senior Senate staffer pleaded guilty to lying to FBI agents in a separate leak investigation.
The Treasury case centres on a dozen stories published by BuzzFeed News that described suspicious activity reports, or SARs, which are generated by banks when a financial transaction may involve illegal activity.
Prosecutors charged Natalie Mayflower Sours Edwards with the unauthorised disclosure of suspicious activity reports and conspiracy. The charges were filed in federal court in New York but she made her first court appearance in northern Virginia.
Edwards, 40, lives outside Richmond, Virginia, and works as a senior adviser at the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, often referred to as "FinCEN."