Ex-Army officer admits sharing classified info about Russia-Ukraine war to woman he met online

A former Army officer who held a top-secret security clearance in his post-retirement job with the U.S. Strategic Command pleaded guilty last week to passing classified information about Russia’s war with Ukraine through an online dating platform.

Retired Army Lt. Col. David Franklin Slater, 64, pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiring to transmit classified information before a federal magistrate judge in Omaha, Nebraska. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other counts were dropped.

Slater was working as a civilian at Strategic Command headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska in February 2022 when he began communicating with a woman believed to be living in Ukraine, Justice Department officials said in their indictment against him.

“During this time, [the woman] asked David Franklin Slater to provide her with sensitive, non-public, closely held, and classified [national defense information], to which [he] had access as a result of his employment with the United States Air Force,” federal prosecutors said.

On March 7, 2022 — 11 days after Russia invaded Ukraine — the woman sent him a message saying: “American intelligence says that already 100% of Russian troops are located on the territory of Ukraine. Do you think this information can be trusted?”

Calling Slater her “secret agent” and “secret informer,” the woman asked him for details about plans for then-President Biden and NATO officials to help Ukraine in its fight.

“My sweet Dave, thanks for the valuable information. It’s great that two officials from the U.S.A. are going to Kyiv,” she posted in an April 14, 2022, message. “Dave, I hope tomorrow NATO will prepare a very unpleasant ’surprise’ for [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. Will you tell me?”

Prosecutors said Slater passed along classified defense information about military targets inside Russia to the woman on March 28, 2022. About two weeks later, he transmitted intelligence material about Russian military capabilities, prosecutors said.

“The defendant was required to protect national defense information and classified information, properly handle, store, and disseminate classified information, and report suspicious incidents, including attempts by anyone without authorization to receive classified or sensitive information from the U.S. military,” according to the indictment.

Federal prosecutors said Slater and the woman often communicated through the online messaging platform, where she asked him for sensitive information he had access to because of his position.

“Defendant knew and had reason to believe that such information could be used to the injury of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation,” according to the indictment.

Court documents don’t identify the woman or say whether she was working for Ukraine or Russia. They also don’t identify the dating platform.

“I conspired to willfully communicate national defense information to an unauthorized person,” Slater wrote on his petition to change his plea.

Slater remains free pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for Oct. 8. Prosecutors and his lawyers agreed that he should serve between five years and 10 months and seven years and three months in prison, and the government will recommend a term at the low end of that range. The charge carries a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

U.S. District Judge Brian Buescher will decide whether to accept the plea agreement and will determine Slater’s sentence.

Prosecutors said he also faces the loss of “certain federal benefits,” presumably his military retirement pay.