A former FBI intelligence analyst received a prison sentence for illegally keeping hundreds of classified national defense documents at her residence. Kendra Kingsbury, 50, from Garden City, Kansas, was sentenced to three years and ten months without parole after pleading guilty to two counts of unlawful retention of national defense documents. Kingsbury worked for the FBI for over 12 years, holding a top-secret security clearance and accessing classified information while assigned to various squads focusing on areas like drug trafficking, violent crime, gangs, and counterintelligence.

The FBI's investigation into Kingsbury's use of the documents raised more questions than answers, including suspicious calls to individuals linked to counterterrorism investigations. The reasons for these calls remain unclear as Kingsbury declined to provide further information. She admitted to removing approximately 386 classified documents from the FBI and storing them at her former North Kansas City, Missouri, home. These documents, including electronic files on hard drives and other media, contained highly sensitive information about intelligence sources, methods, and ongoing investigations.

The retained documents contained information on national security priorities, specific investigations, sensitive human-source operations, intelligence gaps concerning foreign adversaries, and FBI technical capabilities. Some of the secret-level documents originated from another government agency and detailed intelligence gathering on terrorist groups, including information about al Qaeda members in Africa and a suspected associate of Osama bin Laden.

Kingsbury’s sentencing occurs amidst the ongoing debate surrounding classified documents found at the residences of former President Trump and President Biden. Trump faces 37 felony charges related to mishandling classified documents, obstruction, and making false statements following an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago property. Classified materials were also discovered at Biden's former office and Delaware home. Biden's legal team has stated they cooperated with authorities to return the documents to the National Archives, emphasizing the small number of documents compared to the Trump case.