David Franklin Slater Accused of Illegally Leaking Military Information to Person Who Called Him “Secret Informant Sweetheart”
A retired Army colonel sent classified Pentagon secrets about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to a foreign dating site to a user he believed to be a woman in Ukraine who called him her “secret love informant,” according to court documents.
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 communicates through the dating site with a user who claims to be a woman living in Ukraine. The user asked Slater for data, referring to him as his “secret agent” and “secret informant love interest,” according to the indictment. “Beloved Dave, do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us?asked the user, among several other proposals requesting classified data from Slater.
He is scheduled to make his first court appearance Tuesday and faces a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000 for conspiracy. with a view to transmitting and transmitting data on national defense. data.
On Monday, former Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 16 years in prison for leaking classified Pentagon information.