An unconventional candidate entered the race for a congressional seat in Arizona. Democrat Johnathan Curtis Buma, a former FBI agent of 14 years who was going to flee the country but was arrested earlier this year, filed his paperwork with Arizona’s election commission on April 28.
Buma was arrested in late March at John F. Kennedy International Airport moments before boarding an international flight to an undisclosed location. He was released the next day on a $100,000 bond and faces prosecution in Los Angeles.
He is accused of illegally acquiring and holding onto classified information in Oct. 2023, allegedly hoping to publish it in the form of a book.
The former FBI agent took the documents after claiming that the FBI targeted President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, and stifled an investigation into Rudy Giuliani.
Buma in a July 2023 statement to the Senate alleged the FBI committed “numerous acts of intelligence suppression,” as The Guardian reported.
It’s also worth noting Buma is being represented by Mark Geragos, the same attorney who defended Hunter Biden.
On his ActBlue donation page, Buma positioned himself as someone dedicated to his political cause.
“As a whistleblower who called out injustice from the inside, I’ve already sacrificed financial stability, career opportunities, and social standing,” he wrote. “Now, I’m taking a stand on the frontlines — and I’m asking you to stand with me.”
He is running for a seat currently held by incumbent Rep. Juan Ciscomani, a Republican. The Arizona address listed on Buma’s candidacy application lists Prescott, a city outside the district area he is running for.
But, as one report found, the conditions of his March release order include not leaving California, Utah and “the points in between necessary for travel.”
“I also moved to Arizona recently, and I’m in the process of transitioning down to district six — I’ve moved to Prescott, Arizona. And I’m speaking with the judge tomorrow about all that,” Buma told Just the News. “So there shouldn’t be anything I’m aware of that would preclude me from listing my statement of intent.”
Republicans took advantage of the news, and issued a statement criticizing Buma’s candidacy and his controversial track record.
“The meltdown of the Arizona Democrat Party continues," said National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Ben Petersen.
“Democrats’ primary circus will expose their candidates cannot be trusted to keep Arizonans safe. Meanwhile, Representative Juan Ciscomani will continue to deliver secure borders for Arizonans.”
Buma, a “resistance” style Democratic candidate, in his statement to the Senate said that after witnessing “political bias” in the FBI, he found himself at his “wit’s end” and filed a whistleblower complaint in January 2022.
But this was met with pushback from internal agency officials as his management began “unofficially investigating me in an apparent attempt to find derogatory information to be used to remove me from my position and discredit me, to no avail, because I never sold out to anyone.”
According to the FBI affidavit against Buma from October 2023, Buma printed about 130 files, most of it information provided by confidential sources and marked with highly classified labels before taking a leave of absence from work.