Retired Army officer pleads guilty to sharing classified info on Russia-Ukraine war on dating site

By STEVE KARNOWSKI A retired Army officer who worked as a civilian for the Air Force has pleaded guilty to conspiring to transmit classified information about Russia s war with Ukraine on a foreign online dating platform Related Articles NFL legend John Elway won t be charged in golf cart accident that killed former agent Jeff Sperbeck Starbucks takes aim at remote work says various employees may need to relocate to headquarters In LA activists patrol Home Depots parks using a volunteer setup to warn of immigration raids Children on video handcuffed in federal custody in LA it s barbaric immigrant-rights group says Could this Hawaii neighborhood be the next Lahaina A few residents fear a similar wildfire fate David Slater who had top secret clearance at his job at the U S Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska pleaded guilty to a single count before a federal magistrate judge in Omaha on Thursday In exchange for his guilty plea two other counts were dropped Slater remains free pending his sentencing which is scheduled for Oct Prosecutors and his lawyers agreed that he should serve between five years and months and seven years and three months in prison and the ruling body will recommend a term at the low end of that range The charge carries a statutory maximum of years behind bars U S District Judge Brian Buescher will ultimately decide whether to accept the plea agreement and will determine Slater s sentence I conspired to willfully communicate national defense information to an unauthorized person Slater mentioned in a handwritten note on his petition to change his plea Slater had access to a few of the country s majority of closely held secrets John Eisenberg assistant attorney general for national measure revealed in a comment Access to classified information comes with great responsibility reported Lesley Woods the U S attorney for Nebraska mentioned in the same message David Slater failed in his duty to protect this information by willingly sharing National Defense Information with an unknown online personality despite having years of military experience that should have caused him to be suspicious of that person s motives Slater retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel in and worked in a classified space at the base from around August until around April He attended briefings about the Russia-Ukraine war that were classified up to top secret court documents say He was arrested in March of In his plea agreement he acknowledged that he conspired to transmit classified information that he learned from those briefings via the foreign dating website s messaging platform to an unnamed coconspirator who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine The information classified as secret pertained to military targets and Russian military capabilities according to the plea agreement Defendant knew and had reason to believe that such information could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation the agreement states According to the original indictment the coconspirator regularly requested Slater for classified information She called him my secret informant love in one message She closed another by saying You are my secret agent With love In another she wrote Dave I hope the subsequent day NATO will prepare a very pleasant surprise for Russian President Vladimir Putin Will you tell me Court documents don t identify the coconspirator or say whether she was working for Ukraine or Russia They also don t identify the dating platform Amy Donato a spokesperson for the U S attorney s office in Omaha noted Monday that she couldn t provide that information Slater s attorney Stuart Dornan didn t directly return a call seeking further details