Private equity firm TPG Global has sued its former global head of public affairs, Adam Levine, alleging in federal court that the former Bush White House spokesman took confidential documents and threatened to disclose information to the press to harm the firm.

suitLevine, who joined TPG in 2008, made a "serious of ominous threats against [TPG] and its employees and began secretly accessing [TPG] proprietary and confidential information" after he was told he would not be elevated to partner, according to the complaint filed in US District Court in Texas, where TPG is based. The company says Levine on several occasions threatened to leak information to the media to plant damaging stories about the firm.

Levine was managing director of global public affairs before leaving TPG at the end of the year. He told Reuters in early January that he decided to go back into politics. Levine spokesman Barbara Rohn said Levine is a whistleblower: "Mr. Levine was dismissed because he had alerted TPG senior management to serious issues of non-compliance and defrauding its investors of millions of dollars in fees and expenses."

TPG, which says Levine has contacted other media outlets, said it fired Levine on Dec. 31 in response to "continued threats and taking of TPG's confidential information," according to the complaint.

At one point, the complaint alleges, Levine "commented that he would 'take down' TPG the same way that he took down Scooter Libby," the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who did jail time for lying about his role in the CIA-Valerie Plame leak scandal. Levine testified before a grand jury in that case.

Levine was previously VP of corporate communications for Goldman Sachs after his White House stint as assistant WH press secretary and director of TV news. He was a senior producer for "Hardball with Chris Matthews."

TPG wants a court to order Levine to return any documents or files and disclose who he gave any info to. The firm also seeks damages.

The private equity firm said in its complaint that it learned of one instance of Levine's access to confidential materials when a reporter for the New York Times who had internal TPG emails contacted TPG in late December. TPG said a forensic investigation showed Levine forwarded (and apparently doctored) one such email to his own email address 10 days earlier.