The Justice Department (DOJ) accused a former senior Army officer assigned to U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) of giving out classified defense secrets to a woman he met on a foreign dating website in an indictment unsealed Monday night. According to the indictment, David Franklin Slater, who had retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel, allegedly sent information labeled SECRET from approximately February to April 2022.
Slater 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. The individual receiving the information claimed to be a woman from Ukraine.
The Daily Caller News Foundation reports:
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.
