Retired US Air Force colonel shared top-secret intel via foreign dating platform, feds say

A civilian employee of the United States Air Force was arrested and charged with transmitting top secret defense information on a foreign online dating platform over a period of several months in 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed this week.

David Franklin Slater, 63, was arrested Friday in Nebraska on a three-count federal indictment. According to the indictment, Slater, who was assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command unit at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, attended top secret official briefings regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine and then gave out that information to someone claiming to be a woman living in Ukraine via email and online messages.

"The co-conspirator regularly asked Slater to provide her with sensitive, non-public, closely held and classified NDI and called Slater in their messages her 'secret informant love' and her 'secret agent'," said the department in its news release, adding that Slater complied with her requests, providing information, "including regarding military targets and Russian military capabilities relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine".

Indictment alleges defendant 'knowingly' transmitted information

The department said that "Slater willfully, improperly, and unlawfully" shared the secret information with his co-conspirator, who has not been identified by name in the indictment.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department's National Security Division, in a statement said that 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”.

“The Department of Justice will seek to hold accountable those who knowingly and willfully put their country at risk by disclosing classified information," Olsen said.

Slater was scheduled to appear in court in the District of Nebraska Tuesday. If convicted, Slater faces up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the three counts in the indictment.

An attorney listed for Slater could not immediately be reached for a comment on the case.

Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @saman_shafiq7.