The Department of Justice has announced a guilty plea from Henry Frese:
- An employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) pleaded guilty today to charges related to his disclosure of classified national defense information (NDI) to two journalists in 2018 and 2019.
- “Frese violated the trust placed in him by the American people when he disclosed sensitive national security information for personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers. “He alerted our country’s adversaries to sensitive national defense information, putting the nation’s security at risk. The government takes these breaches seriously and will use all the resources at our disposal to apprehend and prosecute those who jeopardize the safety of this country and its citizens.”
The legal documents are here:
Thank you Mike Cernovich!
Saw this in some other reports, and came away with the impression that the reporter was living with the guy and that she may have been actively soliciting the stuff from him. That would seem to me to change the dynamics of the whole thing.
As I’m given to understand it, if a reporter just receives TS info, they’ve been left alone if they publish it, but that seems different from going to someone you have a personal relationship with, who you know holds a TS clearance and asking them to do something for you that you should know is illegal. Just seems to me that crosses over from reporting to accessory to a crime.
But it would be good to get an outside opinion.
And another one gone, and another one gone,
Another one bites the dust.