A retired Army officer who worked as a civilian for the Air Force is heading to prison after he conspired to share classified information on a foreign online dating platform.
According to the Associated Press, David Slater has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison in U.S. District Court in Lincoln, Nebraska, on Wednesday.
He was arrested in March 2024 and pleaded guilty in July.
According to court documents, Slater, after retiring as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army, worked in a classified space at U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska and held a top-secret security clearance between August 2021 and April 2022.
He attended briefings about the Russia-Ukraine war and admitted in July that he conspired to transmit classified information that he learned from the briefings via a foreign dating website’s messaging platform.
Slater admitted he planned to send the information 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.
According to the Associated Press, the the coconspirator called Slater, “my secret informant love!” in one message and she closed another by saying, “You are my secret agent. With love.”
In another, she wrote, “Dave, I hope tomorrow NATO will prepare a very pleasant ‘surprise’ for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin! Will you tell me?”
Slater was also fined $25,000 and ordered to undergo a year of supervision upon his release from prison. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other counts were dropped.
“Mr. Slater betrayed an oath he made to safeguard our nation’s intelligence,” said Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha Field Office.
“Leveraging his access to sensitive information, Mr. Slater chose to transmit material that put our country at risk. The FBI is extremely thankful for the work of our partners in this case. We will continue to partner together to defend the homeland by aggressively investigating and apprehending criminals and adversaries who pose a threat to our nation’s security.”
U.S. Attorney Lesley A. Woods for the District of Nebraska added Slater was given “great responsibility” and “failed in his duty” by sharing the classified info.
It is unclear if the coconspirator was working for Ukraine or Russia.
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