A retired army colonel sent classified Pentagon secrets about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through a foreign dating website to a person he believed was a woman in Ukraine who called him her “secret informant love”, court filings allege.
David Franklin Slater, 63, a retired lieutenant colonel who was working as a civilian for United States Strategic Command, is accused of illegally disclosing sensitive national defense information.
Slater was arrested on 2 March for conspiring to transmit and transmitting classified information beginning around February 2022 to April 2022. United States Strategic Command is one of 11 unified combatant commands in the Department of Defense, and headquartered at Offutt air force base near Omaha, Nebraska. It is responsible for nuclear deterrence, among other things.
Slater had a top security clearance while working at US Strategic Command and received training on how to properly handle classified information, according to a justice department press release.
Slater was communicating through the dating website with a person claiming to be a woman living in Ukraine. The person requested information from Slater, referring to him as her “secret agent” and “secret informant love”, according to the indictment. “Beloved Dave, do Nato and Biden have a secret plan to help us?” the person asked, among several other overtures requesting classified information from Slater.
He is scheduled to make an initial court appearance on Tuesday and faces a maximum penalty of up to 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.
On Monday, the former air national guard member Jack Teixeira received 16 years in prison for leaking classified Pentagon information.