The U.S. Justice Department
released the below information:
An employee of the
Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested today on charges related to his
alleged disclosure of classified national defense information (NDI) to two
journalists in 2018 and 2019.
“As laid out in
today’s indictment, Frese was caught red-handed disclosing sensitive national
security information for personal gain,” said Assistant Attorney General for
National Security John C. Demers. “Frese betrayed the trust placed in him
by the American people—a betrayal that risked harming the national security of
this country. This is one of six unauthorized disclosure cases the Department
has charged in just over two years, and we will continue in our efforts to
punish and deter this behavior.”
Henry Kyle Frese, 30,
of Alexandria, is a DIA employee and holds a Top Secret//Sensitive
Compartmented Information U.S. government security clearance. According to
court documents, between mid-April and early May 2018, Frese allegedly accessed
classified intelligence reports, some of which were unrelated to his job
duties, and provided TOP SECRET information regarding a foreign country’s
weapons systems to a journalist (Journalist 1). According to court
documents, Frese and Journalist 1 had the same residential address from August
2017 through August 2018 and, based on reviews of Frese’s and Journalist 1’s
public social media pages, it appears that they were involved in a romantic
relationship for some or all of that period of time. The unauthorized
disclosure of TOP SECRET information could reasonably be expected to cause
exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States.
According to the
indictment, a week after Frese accessed one of the intelligence reports
(Intelligence Report 1) for the second time, Journalist 1 wrote to Frese on
April 27, 2018, and asked whether he would be willing to speak with another
journalist (Journalist 2). Frese stated that he was “down” to help Journalist 2
if it helped Journalist 1 because he wanted to see Journalist 1 “progress.”
As alleged, in that
same communication, Frese and Journalist 1 also discussed a story that
Journalist 1 was working on, the subject matter of which was the topic of
Intelligence Report 1. Several days after that communication, Frese
searched on a classified United States government computer system for terms
related to the topics contained in Intelligence Report 1. According to
the indictment, in the hours after searching for terms related to the topic of
Intelligence Report 1, Frese spoke by telephone with both Journalist 1 (twice) and
Journalist 2, and within approximately a half hour after Frese’s conversations
with the two journalists, Journalist 1 published an article (Article 1) through
News Outlet 1, which contained NDI from Intelligence Report 1 classified at the
TOP SECRET//SCI level.
In addition, as
alleged in the indictment, on Sept. 24, 2019, Frese was captured on
court-authorized surveillance of his cell phone orally transmitting classified
NDI to Journalist 2. These disclosures contained NDI classified at the SECRET
level, meaning that the unauthorized disclosure of the information could
reasonably be expected to cause serious harm to the national security of the
United States.
“Henry Kyle Frese was
entrusted with TOP SECRET information related to the national defense of our
country,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District
of Virginia. “Frese allegedly violated that trust, the oath he swore to uphold,
and is charged with engaging in dastardly and felonious conduct at the expense
of our country. This indictment should serve as a clear reminder to all of
those similarly entrusted with National Defense Information that unilaterally
disclosing such information for personal gain, or that of others, is not
selfless or heroic, it is criminal.”
"Mr. Frese
allegedly disclosed highly classified national defense information, which puts
our country and people at risk," said Alan E. Kohler Jr., Special Agent in
Charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office Counterintelligence Division.
"He violated his oath to serve and protect the United States. The
men and women of the FBI work hard every day to protect the American people and
uphold the Constitution - we will not stand by while trusted government
employees violate that trust in such an egregious way."
A federal grand jury
returned an indictment yesterday charging Frese with two counts of willful
transmission of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive
it. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each
count. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum
penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after
taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Assistant U.S.
Attorney Danya E. Atiyeh and Trial Attorney Jennifer Kennedy Gellie of the
National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are
prosecuting the case.
An indictment contains
allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed
to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.
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