A retired army officer who has worked as a citizen for the Air Force pleaded guilty to plot Disseminate classified information About this Russia’s war with Ukraine On a foreign online dating platform.
David Slater, 64, who carried out the top secret with his job at the US Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) at the Offt Air Force Base in Nebraska, convicted a single count before a federal magistrate judge in Omaha on Thursday. In exchange for his guilty petition, two other counts were dropped.
American Attorney Leslie Woods, for the district of Nebraska, said Slater “in his duty failed to protect this information by sharing national defense information with an unknown online personality. statement,
Startcom is the US military command responsible for the nuclear preventive, command and control. While working there, Slater received training for proper handling of sensitive government information, according to prosecutors.
Slater is pending his punishment, which is scheduled for 8 October. The prosecutors and their lawyers agreed that they should work in five years and 10 months and seven years and three months jail, and the government would recommend a word at the bottom of that limit. The charge bears a legal 10 -year -old behind bars.
American District Judge Brian Busher will eventually decide whether the petition is to accept the agreement and determine the punishment of the slater.
Slater said in a handwritten note on his petition to change his petition, “I conspired to communicate a unauthorized person to a national defense information.”
Slater had access to some of some of the country’s proximity mysteries, John Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. Said in a statement.
“Access to classified information comes with great responsibility,” Woods said, Slater should have doubted the objectives of the unknown person.
According to court documents, the slater and anonymous person discussed the war on email and an online messaging platform. The prosecutors said that he was asked regularly about access to national defense information.
“Dear, what is shown on the screen in a special room? It’s very interesting,” reads the message for Slater on March 2022. “Dear Dave, Do NATO and Biden have a secret plan to help us,” the person asked in another message.
Slater retired from the army as a lieutenant colonel in 2020 and worked in a classified place based on the basis of around August 2021 to April 2022. He participated in briefing about the Russia-Ukraine war, which was classified to the top mystery, saying court documents. it was Arrested in March 2024.
In his argument agreement, he admitted that he hatched a conspiracy to broadcast classified information, which he learned an anonymous cockenter through the messaging platform of the foreign dating website from the briefing who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine. According to the plea agreement, secretly classified, information related to military goals and Russian military capabilities.
The agreement stated, “The defendant knew and the reason to believe that such information could be used for the United States injury or the benefit of a foreign nation.”
According to the original prosecution, the coconpirator regularly asked the slater to classified information. He called her, “My secret informer love!” In a message. He closed another, saying, “You are my secret agent. With love.” In the second, he wrote, “Dave, I hope that tomorrow NATO (Russian President Vladimir) will create a very pleasant ‘surprise’ for Putin! Will you tell me?”
The message of April 14, 2022 reads, “My lovely dave, thanks to valuable information, it is great that two USA officials are going to Kiev.”
The court documents do not identify the coconpirator, or it says she was working for Ukraine or Russia. They do not even identify dating platforms.
Amy Donato, a spokesman at the US Attorney Office in Omaha, said on Monday that she could not provide that information. Slater’s Attorney, Stuart Dornan did not immediately return a call demanding further details.
Before announcing the allegations against Slater last year, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard admitted that he had violated the Steering Act when he posted high -class government documents – some about the war in Ukraine – on a gaming platform.
