The Justice Department accused a former senior Army officer assigned to U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) of shoveling out classified defense secrets to a woman he met on a foreign dating website in an indictment unsealed Monday night.
David Franklin Slater had retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and was working as a civilian employee for STRATCOM, which oversees U.S. nuclear forces, where he held a Top Secret security clearance and had access to sensitive briefings about Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to the indictment. From approximately February to April 2022, he allegedly funneled information labeled SECRET to an individual on a foreign-owned dating website who claimed to be a woman from Ukraine. (RELATED: Jack Teixeira Pleads Guilty For Leaking Classified Pentagon Docs)
The woman called Slater her “secret informant love” and her “secret agent,” according to a transcript of their exchanges included in the indictment.
She frequently asked him to provide “sensitive, non-public, closely held and classified” defense information, the DOJ said in a press release. Some of that information pertained to military targets related to Russia’s war in Ukraine and U.S. information on Russian military capabilities.
“American Intelligence says that already 100% of Russian troops are located on the territory of Ukraine. Do you think this information can be trusted?” the conspirator asked on March 7, 2022, the first request mentioned in the indictment.
Others followed on a regular basis.
“By the way, you were the first to tell me that NATO members are traveling by train and only now (already evening) this was announced on our news. You are my secret informant love! How were your meetings? Successfully?” the conspirator messaged Slater on March 15, 2022.
Another request for classified information in March was signed, “You are my secret agent. With love.”
In each of the cases, Slater provided the requested secret information, the indictment alleges.
“Sweet Dave, the supply of weapons is completely classified, which is great!” the conspirator told Slater in on April 12.
Authorities arrested Slater on Saturday, according to a press release accompanying the indictment. The DOJ charged Slater with one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information and two counts of unauthorized disclosure.
He was set to make his first court appearance on Tuesday; if convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $750,000, according to the DOJ.
“Let me be clear: while modernization will continue to be the priority, #USSTRATCOM forces are ready to fight tonight.”
-Gen. Anthony Cotton, commander of U.S. Strategic CommandUSSTRATCOM’s 2024 Posture Statement is available here: https://t.co/BYGOBQNovD#PeaceIsOurProfession pic.twitter.com/xiGKVGDwaM
— United States Strategic Command (@US_STRATCOM) February 29, 2024
Slater retired from the Army in 2020 and had been working for the U.S. Air Force’s STRATCOM at Offutt Air Force Base since August 2021, just months before he and the foreign national made contact, the indictment alleged.
Slater allegedly “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,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who heads the DOJ’s National Security Division, said in a statement. “The Department of Justice will seek to hold accountable those who knowingly and willfully put their country at risk by disclosing classified information.”
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