US court convicts retired Air Force officer of leaking classified data on Russia's war on dating site

A retired US Army officer who worked for the Air Force has been sentenced for leaking classified information about Russia's war against Ukraine to a person who posed as a Ukrainian woman on a dating website.

Source: ABC News, as reported by European Pravda

Details: David Slater, 64, a former civilian employee at the US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base, has been sentenced to nearly six years in prison. He was also fined US$25,000 and ordered to undergo a year of supervision upon his release after serving his sentence.

Slater pleaded guilty to conspiring to disclose classified national defence information. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other charges were dropped.

Investigators found that between 2021 and 2022, Slater had access to briefings on Russia's war against Ukraine that were classified up to top secret. He shared intelligence on military targets and Russian capabilities through a messaging feature on a foreign dating site with a person who claimed to be a woman from Ukraine.

Slater's correspondent regularly asked him for information classified as secret, addressing him as "my secret informant love!" and writing "You are my secret agent. With love."

Court documents do not reveal the identity of the coconspirator or clarify whether she was linked to either the Ukrainian or Russian governments.

Slater was arrested in March 2024. His case is one of several high-profile US investigations involving leaks of classified information, including the arrest of 21-year-old US airman Jack Teixeira, who shared Pentagon documents related to Ukraine's military operations.

Background: In 2024, retired US Army lieutenant colonel David Slater was arrested and charged with unlawfully disclosing classified information about national defence and the Russo-Ukrainian war through a dating website.

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