NEW YORK _ An FBI agent was referred to an internal disciplinary board after federal prosecutors said they found "incontrovertible evidence" that the agent leaked confidential information about an insider-trading investigation of Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters and golfer Phil Mickelson.
Walters, who was charged in May with insider trading, has asked the judge in his case to determine whether prosecutors or Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were behind the leaks in news reports in 2014 and should be punished. While prosecutors initially said there was no leak, they reversed course on Friday.
"The agent admitted that he disclosed confidential information about the investigation to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reporters who wrote the articles," Assistant U.S. Attorney Joan Loughnane wrote to the court Friday. She said investigators reviewed email and text messages.
The disclosure comes as the FBI is under fire for its handling of an investigation into then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. In a speech to donors Thursday, Clinton said FBI Director James Comey's decision to disclose a new investigation of her emails, just before the election, helped cause her defeat, according to a recording of the event obtained by The New York Times.
Mickelson wasn't charged in the case.
Jim Margolin, a spokesman for Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, declined to comment on the government's letter.
