A U.S. Air Force civilian employee has been charged with three counts of conspiracy to disclose classified information after falling for an online romance scam and revealing national secrets.
David Franklin Slater, a 63-year-old retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel from Nebraska who works at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, maintained a top secret security clearance from August 2021 to April 2022. During this period, he participated in multiple covert operations briefings on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Slater reportedly developed a relationship with a person he believed to be a woman in Ukraine through a foreign dating app. At her request, she passed on the secret National Defense Information (NDI) acquired from these briefings via the dating app itself.
Divided into three different levels of severity, NDI can be Confidential, meaning it could cause harm to US national security, Secret, meaning it could cause “serious harm”, or Top Secret, meaning it could cause ” exceptionally serious damage” to the NOI. The information Slater sent via the dating app to his co-conspirator was classified as classified.
Messages sent by the conspirator to Ukraine repeatedly requested this secret information, saying things like: “American intelligence says that already 100% of Russian troops are on the territory of Ukraine. Do you think this information can be trusted ?” and “Dave, it’s great that you’re getting information about [unspecified country] First. I hope you will tell me right away? You are my secret agent. With love.”
Slater was arrested on March 2 after “knowingly transmitted classified national defense information to another person in flagrant disregard for the security of his country and his oath to safeguard its secrets,” according to Matthew G. Olsen, deputy attorney general of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
If convicted, he will serve a maximum sentence of 10 years plus three years of supervised release plus a $250,000 fine on each charge.