Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 Source: Associated Press (Wire) Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption - United States) EX-DEA ANALYST SENTENCED FOR INFO. SALE ATLANTA -- A federal judge has sentenced a former Drug Enforcement Administration analyst to one year in prison for selling restricted government information to a London newspaper. Jonathan Clay Randel, 37, of Roswell, pleaded guilty in June to leaking information about British businessman Michael Ashcroft to The Times in 1999. He was sentenced Jan. 9 and remains free on bond. In a plea agreement, Randel admitted supplying information from DEA data banks to a British television correspondent who freelanced for The Times. Federal prosecutors said Randel sold the information for $13,000. Randel's attorney, Steve Sadow of Atlanta, has appealed the sentence. He said his client didn't make any money after expenses, which included taking time off from work and flying to London. If that can be proved, it would reduce the time, if any, Randel would spend in jail, he said. "What has always concerned us is the severity of the government's prosecution in light of the fact that authorized leaks occur all the time when they're in the government's interest," Sadow said Thursday. The information was leaked in 1999, when the Times published stories about huge donations Ashcroft made to the Conservative Party from a business in Belize. The newspaper later settled a libel suit with Ashcroft and published a statement saying none of his businesses in Belize were suspected of having ties to drug dealing. The DEA did not disclose what information Randel sold, although the agency said he had access to computer databases containing secret information about suspected drug traffickers. U.S. Attorney William S. Duffey Jr. said the case is a warning to government workers, especially law enforcement agents, who provide sensitive, even unclassified, information to anyone, including journalists, outside the federal government. Attorneys said prosecution of government workers for leaking information is rare. However, last year, Attorney General John Ashcroft's anti-leak task force recommended agencies identify and prosecute employees who do so. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake