A former senate intelligence staff member, an elderly journalist, pleads guilty to lying to the FBI: NPR

Updated 16:08 ET

The former security chief of the Senate Intelligence Committee pleaded guilty to a lie leader at the FBI Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C.

James Wolfe had been charged with three such charges, but had entered into a plea agreement with the US Attorney's Office in return for leniency and to avoid a trial.

Wolfe was allowed to stay free until he returned to court on December 20 to be sentenced. he faces up to six months in prison.

Wolfe, 57, has come out with a young Washington reporter, Ali Watkins, who has made a name for national security in Congress. Wolfe also had connections with other journalists who covered the panel officially called the Senate Special Committee on Intelligence.

Wolfe has never been accused of mishandling confidential information or disclosing information to the press, but investigators claimed that he had lied to them about his relationships. with the journalists.

He was wearing a dark gray suit and a yellow striped tie in court on Monday, expressing himself in a clear and firm voice when Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson asked him questions.

Wolfe's voice, however, seemed to be interrupted when the judge asked him if he understood that he would have no trial and that he might lose the right to be part of the company. 39, a jury or possess firearms. The lawyer Preston Burton bought him some tissues. Wolfe says "very" satisfied with the services of his lawyers.

Burton, along with lawyers Benjamin Klubes and Lauren Randell, subsequently issued a statement:

"We emphasize again today that Jim has never been accused of compromising classified information, and that such an accusation is not part of today's advocacy." … Jim accepted responsibility for his actions and chose to solve this case so that he and his family could move forward with their lives. "

The relationship between Wolfe and Watkins was the subject of a detailed report this summer by The New York Times, who hired Watkins after the end of his relationship with Wolfe.

The newspaper's editors did not think it was a reason for not recruiting her because she would not cover the Senate Intelligence Committee, the paper said, though Watkins clearly did not say The temperature about some of the interactions she had with the investigators who were getting closer to Wolfe.