US Air Force employee charged with disclosing classified information on dating website

PHOTO CAPTION: Illustrative photo by Andrew Guan via Unsplash

(Reuters) - A civilian U.S. Air Force employee has been charged with disclosing classified defense information to a woman he met on a foreign online dating platform, the Justice Department said on Monday.

David Franklin Slater, 63, was taken into custody in Nebraska on Friday on a three-count federal indictment. He was expected to make an initial court appearance on Tuesday.

The indictment accuses Slater of giving classified material by email and online messages about the Russia-Ukraine war to someone claiming to be a woman living in Ukraine.

That person, who called Slater her "secret agent" and "secret informant love," was not identified by name in the indictment.

Slater, who retired as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army before joining the Air Force as a civilian employee, was assigned to U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, the Justice Department said.

If he is convicted at trial, Slater faces up to 10 years in federal prison on each of the three counts in the indictment.



(Reporting by Eric Beech and Dan Whitcomb)