OVER THE LINE

Former FBI Official Lands 7-Day Jail Term for Accessing Anti-Mueller Activist Emails

The official pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for trying to derail a plan to procure sexual misconduct allegations against Robert Mueller.

Former FBI official Mark Tolson was sentenced to seven days in jail and fined $500 for illegally accessing Washington lobbyist Jack Burkman’s computer after he learned that he was allegedly trying to stage a smear campaign against Robert Mueller. Politico reports that Tolson, 60, accessed a computer belonging to Burkman, who was his neighbor, in an effort to head off cooked-up sexual misconduct allegations against the special counsel. Tolson admitted sending screenshots of messages from Burkman’s account to a journalist, according to court documents. Tolson was able to access the account after his wife Sarah Gilbert Fox gave the email password that she had acquired through work she did for him. “This is actually a very serious offense,” U.S. District Court Judge Leonie Brinkema said during sentencing. “You’re lucky. Your wife is lucky. The government could have prosecuted her as well.”