In many of these cases, the prosecution unlawfully suppressed information.
The prosecution disclosed the information in October after learning about it.
If charged, he would be by far the most senior official ever to face criminal prosecution for divulging information to the news media.
His freedom came as an embarrassment to the security services, who had failed to reveal to the prosecution potentially crucial information favourable to Begg's claims of innocence.
"Unfortunately, sometimes, officers think that they are advancing the prospects for a successful prosecution by providing information that is not entirely true," said Paul J. Browne, the Police Department's chief spokesman.
In the UK, Google was told in 2013 to delete data captured about Wi-Fi networks by its Street View cars, or face prosecution by the Information Commissioner's office.
NEW YORK TIMES Prosecutor Reveals Details of UBS Rogue Trading Case | Kwekuku M. Adoboli, the former UBS trader charged with fraud, had his case referred to a higher court Thursday as the prosecution provided more information about how the Swiss bank discovered a $2.3 billion trading loss.
Mr. Dopp was ultimately granted immunity from prosecution, and provided information that Mr. Soares, a Democrat, used to reopen an inquiry into the Spitzer administration's handling of the travel documents of a political rival, Joseph L. Bruno, a former Senate majority leader.
The bill would require the administration to disclose annually how many applicants to the federal food stamp program who were not also applying for cash assistance were subject to fingerprinting; how much money the city spent on the fingerprinting; how many cases of fraud were detected; and how many applicants were referred for criminal prosecution based on information obtained by fingerprinting.
Now the reason for the extraordinary secrecy surrounding the Obama administration's first prosecution for leaking information to the news media seems clear: Mr. Leibowitz, a contract Hebrew translator, passed on secret transcripts of conversations caught on F.B.I. wiretaps of the Israeli Embassy in Washington.
