(PatriotWise.com) — A civilian employee of the Air Force who worked with US Strategic Command in Omaha was charged with sharing sensitive classified information about the war in Ukraine with someone on a foreign dating website, CNN reported.
In a March 4 press release, the Department of Justice said retired Air Force Lt. Col., David Franklin Slater, 63, with top-secret security clearance at US Strategic Command, was arrested on Saturday, March 2.
According to prosecutors, Slater had participated in classified briefings from February 2022 through April 2022 during the early months of the war and later shared that information with someone who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine.
The pair were communicating both via email and through the messaging platform on a foreign dating site. The Justice Department did not identify the website.
According to the Justice Department, Slater’s co-conspirator, referred to in the indictment as “Co-Conspirator 1,” sent a message in March 2022 asking him what appeared on the screens in the classified briefings. Days later, Co-Conspirator 1 sent a message describing Slater as his “secret informant love.”
After two months of prodding, Slater finally shared classified intelligence with Co-Conspirator 1, sending her details about military targets and Russia’s military capabilities.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, who heads up the National Security Division of the DOJ, described Slater’s actions as a “blatant disregard for the security of his country and his oath to safeguard its secrets.”
Slater is charged with two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information and conspiracy to disclose national defense information. Each of the three charges is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Slater, who retired from the Army in 2020, began working at US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in August 2021.
An active-duty veteran, Slater served on multiple deployments in both Iraq and Afghanistan between 2004 and December 2020. He was also stationed in Qatar for a year between 2016 and 2017.
Slater made his first appearance in court on Tuesday.
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