Ex-FBI analyst gets 7 days after accessing conservative activist’s emails: reports

A former FBI analyst was reportedly sentenced on Friday to seven days in jail and a $500 fine after he admitted to accessing the emails of a conservative activist, according to multiple reports. 

Mark Tolson, 60, had previously pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge after accessing lobbyist Jack Burkman’s emails.

Burkman accused former special counsel Robert Mueller of sexual assault last year without evidence, according to The Washington Post, which described the lobbyist as a conspiracy theorist. 

Tolson told the court that he was trying to protect Mueller. 

“I did what I did to try to protect Director Mueller, who can protect himself,” he was quoted as saying in the Post. “I’m terribly sorry.”

“You can’t just rummage through other people’s accounts,” he was told by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, according to the newspaper. 

Prosecutors have said that Tolson’s wife had previously worked for Burkman and had access to his email account. The two reportedly printed “emails of interest” and tried to give the password to a reporter who declined to accept it. 

According to The Post, Tolson said “I felt I had to go to the media” due to coverage of Burkman’s claims.