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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