BREAKING: DIA official arrested on charges of leaking top-secret info to reporters— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) October 9, 2019
He allegedly was romanticly involved w/one of the reporters, said he wanted to help her career
She wrote 8 articles based on 5 leaked reports
Find out who the reporter ishttps://t.co/gGLxo72VOb
CNBC
written by Dan Mangan
Wednesday October 9, 2019
- An employee of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested on federal charges that he leaked classified information, including details of a foreign country’s weapons systems, to two reporters in 2018 and this year.
- The worker, Henry Kyle Frese, 30, held top-secret clearance at the DIA.
- The Justice Department said that it appears that Frese and one of the reporters “were involved in a romantic relationship for some or all of that period of time” in which Frese allegedly leaked the information.
A counterterrorism analyst for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Wednesday on federal charges that he leaked top secret and other classified information — including details of a foreign country’s weapons systems — to two reporters in 2018 and this year.
The worker, Henry Kyle Frese, 30, held top-secret clearance at the DIA, where he began as a contractor in January 2017, and eventually became a full-time employee.
One of the journalists who allegedly received secret information from Frese had apparently been involved in a romantic relationship with him, authorities said.
That reporter ended up writing at least eight articles based on at least five compromised intelligence reports leaked by Frese, according to a criminal indictment. Frese retweeted a link to the first article that reporter wrote based on information he had allegedly leaked to her, the indictment says.
“Frese was caught red-handed disclosing sensitive national security information for personal gain,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security.
An indictment alleges that Frese accessed classified intelligence reports, some which were not connected to his job duties, in spring 2018 and provided top-secret information about another country’s weapons systems to a journalist who lived at the same Alexandria, Virginia, residential address as Frese.
The Justice Department said that “based on reviews” of the public social media pages of Frese and that reporter, “it appears that they were involved in a romantic relationship for some or all of that period of time” in which Frese allegedly leaked the information to her.
“The unauthorized disclosure of TOP SECRET information could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States,” the Justice Department said in a press release announcing Frese’s indictment in U.S. District Court in Virginia.
A week after Frese allegedly accessed one of the intelligence reports, the first journalist sent Frese a direct message on Twitter asking whether he would speak with another journalist, according to the department.
“Frese stated that he was ‘down’ to help Journalist 2 if it helped Journalist 1 because he wanted to see Journalist 1 ‘progress.’”
The identities of the reporters and their employers were not disclosed by authorities.
The indictment against Frese says that on Sept. 24, 2019, surveillance of Frese caught him on a cellphone call transmitting national defense information to the second reporter.
Those disclosures allegedly contained information classified as secret, “meaning that the unauthorized disclosure of the information could reasonably be expected to cause serious harm to the national security of the United States,” the department said.
Frese faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison if convicted of each of the two counts of wilful transmission of national defense information with which he was charged.
“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,” Terwilliger said.
“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.”
Intelligence agent arrested for spilling secrets to journalists https://t.co/FRN917IRG4 via @nypost— Kimberley Strassel (@KimStrassel) October 9, 2019
New York Post
written by Bob Fredericks
Wednesday October 9, 2019
The feds busted a Defense Intelligence Agency worker Wednesday for allegedly leaking top secret information to two journalists — one of whom he was shacking up with.
Henry Kyle Frese, 30, a counterintelligence analyst from Alexandria, Virginia, who had a top-secret security clearance, was indicted Tuesday on two counts of willful transmission of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it.
“Frese was caught red-handed disclosing sensitive national-security information for personal gain,” said John C. Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, who cited as the motivation for the probe ex-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ vow to pursue leakers.
Court documents allege that between mid-April and early May 2018, Frese took classified intelligence reports — some of which were unrelated to his job duties — and gave top-secret information about a foreign country’s weapons systems to an unnamed journalist.
The feds would not reveal any details about the weapons or the country involved.
Frese and the journalist had the same residential address for a year starting in August 2017 and, based on Frese’s social media pages, “it appears that they were involved in a romantic relationship for some or all of that period of time,” the feds said in a statement.
The release of the unspecified secrets could be “expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States,” they said, adding that foreign countries could use the information against their rivals, possibly placing US lives at risk.
The journalist gal pal then allegedly asked Frese if he would be willing to help another reporter, a colleague of hers.
The names of the journalists and the news organizations they worked for were not revealed.
“Frese stated that he was ‘down’ to help Journalist 2 if it helped Journalist 1 because he wanted to see Journalist 1 ‘progress,’” the feds allege.
The first journalist asked Frese for certain information for articles she was writing for an unnamed outlet, and she published at least eight articles that were allegedly based on classified information.
The second journalist also published articles based on the intel.
G. Zachary Terwilliger, the US attorney for the Eastern District in Virginia where the case will be prosecuted, slammed Frese.
“Frese allegedly violated … the oath he swore to uphold, and is charged with engaging in dastardly and felonious conduct at the expense of our country,” Terwilliger said.
If convicted, Frese faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on each count.
The feds would not say during a conference call whether the two journalists would be prosecuted, or even confirm if they worked for American news organizations.
It was unclear when Frese will appear in federal court in Virginia.
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