A U.S. Air Force employee has been charged with illegally sharing classified national security information about Russia’s war in Ukraine on a foreign online dating site.
David Franklin Slater, aged 63, was arrested on Saturday for allegedly conspiring to transmit and transmitting national defense information from around February 2022 until approximately April 2022.
Slater had retired from the U.S. Army as a lieutenant colonel in late 2020, then working at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska under the Strategic Command as a civilian employee.
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He attended Strategic Command briefings on Russia’s war with Ukraine, then sending classified information to a “co-conspirator” claiming to be a woman living in Ukraine via a foreign dating platform, according to the indictment.
The classified information allegedly shared by Slater includes details on military targets and Russian military capabilities. Slater had signed a non-disclosure agreement in 2021, the indictment outlined.
Slater “knowingly transmitted classified national defense information to another person in blatant disregard for the security of his country and his oath to safeguard its secrets,” said Matthew G. Olsen, Assistant Attorney General with the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Prosecutors said that Slater “regularly communicated” with the alleged co-conspirator, who is not named in the indictment. The alleged co-conspirator described Slater as “my secret informant,” and “secret agent” in messages from 2022.
Slater is expected to make his initial court appearance in Nebraska on Tuesday. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of conspiracy to transmit and the transmission of national defense information, according to the Justice Department.
Uncommon Knowledge
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