An American employee of the U.S. Strategic Command spread classified information about the Russian-Ukrainian war to unauthorized persons on an online dating platform.

The U.S. Department of Justice reported on this.

A civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) at Offutt Air Force Base was arrested Saturday, March 2, for allegedly conspiring to transmit and transmitting classified information to third parties.

According to the indictment, David Franklin Slater, 63, of Nebraska, worked in a classified space at USSTRATCOM and held a Top Secret security clearance from in or around August 2021 until in or around April 2022, after retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel from the U.S. Army.

Slater attended closed-door USSTRATCOM briefings on the Russian-Ukrainian war. Between February 2022 and April 2022, he shared classified information received at the briefings with his confidant, who introduced himself as a “woman living in Ukraine” through a dating site.

The “woman” regularly asked Slater questions about US national defense, as well as Russia’s goals and military capabilities in the war in Ukraine. In her correspondence, “she” called him a “lover-informant” and a “secret agent.”

“As alleged, Mr. Slater, an Air Force civilian employee and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, knowingly transmitted classified national defense information to another person in blatant disregard for the security of his country and his oath to safeguard its secrets,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division reported.

If convicted, Slater faces a maximum penalty of 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.

The case of Teixeira

This is not the first recorded case of “leaking” sensitive information and classified data by members of the U.S. military.

In April of last year, the FBI arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.

He pleaded guilty to spreading classified information regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war, intelligence on Russian plans, and the state of the Armed Forces of Ukraine ahead of the summer offensive in 2023 on Discord.

In total, Teixeira released thousands of pages of top-secret information collected by US intelligence. This leak is called the largest in the country in many years since the Wikileaks scandal.