An Air Force employee has been charged with sharing classified information on a foreign dating website after prosecutors say he sent sensitive information about Russia’s war in Ukraine to a person who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine.
Prosecutors say 63-year-old David Franklin Slater, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who held a Top Secret security clearance at US Strategic Command, attended classified briefings on the war in Ukraine from February through April 2022, soon after Russia’s invasion began. Slater then sent this classified information to someone who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine, according to an indictment. The two communicated via email and through the foreign dating website’s online messaging platform, though the indictment does not identify which one.
Slater was arrested Saturday, the Justice Department said in a news release. CNN could not immediately identify an attorney for him.
The person Slater communicated with, who is identified only as “Co-Conspirator 1,” referred to him as “Sweet Dave” and “my secret agent” in messages, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors say Slater’s co-conspirator sent him a message around March 11, 2022, asking, “Dear, what is shown on the screens in the special room?? It is very interesting.”
Less than a week later, according to the indictment, the co-conspirator sent another message saying, “You are my secret informant love! How were your meetings? Successfully?”
The co-conspirator sent messages for nearly two months, according to the indictment, repeatedly probing Slater for more classified information. In April 2022, prosecutors say Slater received a message that said, “You have a job in the Operations Center today, I remember, I’m sure there is a lot of…
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