USA TODAY International Edition
Intel analyst arrested in leak to reporters
Justice Department says it’s cracking down
WASHINGTON – A 30- year- old counterterrorism analyst for the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Wednesday on charges that he disclosed classified information to two journalists, one of whom he was dating, federal prosecutors said.
Henry Kyle Frese, of Alexandria, Virginia, was charged with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information, each carrying a maximum of 10 years imprisonment. The arrest comes as the Justice Department vows to continue ramping up its efforts to crack down on the unauthorized release of classified information.
“Frese was caught red- handed disclosing sensitive national security information for personal gain,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement. “Frese betrayed the trust placed in him by the American people – a betrayal that risked harming the national security of this country.”
Federal prosecutors say Frese, whose government security clearance allowed him access to top secret and sensitive information, researched multiple classified intelligence reports – some of which were unrelated to his job duties – and leaked information about a foreign country’s weapons systems to a journalist. Prosecutors alleged that Frese, who worked as both a contractor and a full- time employee for DIA, was in a relationship with that journalist and sought to advance the reporter’s career.
The unauthorized disclosures happened in 2018 and 2019. From August 2017 to August 2018, Frese and the reporter lived together, authorities say.
Court records say Frese accessed an intelligence report in about April to May 2018. Frese later received a message on Twitter from the reporter, who asked if he would be willing to talk to a second journalist – a colleague at an affiliated but different news outlet. Frese said he was “down” to help the second reporter.
In the same Twitter exchange with Frese, the reporter talked about a story she was working on. Shortly after, Frese searched a classified government computer system and searched for topics related to the story the reporter was working on, court records say. In the next hours, Frese talked to both journalists by phone. The reporter believed to be romantically involved with Frese published an article that contained information from the report Frese accessed, court records say.
As recently as last month, Frese accessed two more classified intelligence reports, court records say. Around this time, the FBI had begun court- authorized surveillance of Frese’s calls and found that he leaked national defense information from the reports to the second reporter, court records say.
The journalist linked romantically to Frese published at least eight stories containing classified information provided by the analyst, officials say. Prosecutors asserted that Frese compromised at least five intelligence reports.
Authorities did not name the two journalists involved and did not identify their news organizations, though court records say the second journalist described herself as a national security correspondent on Twitter. Both journalists wrote about the same topics, though the second journalist is more senior, court records say.
Authorities declined to say if the disclosures resulted in harm in national security or which foreign countries’ defense systems were involved.
“Frese betrayed the trust placed in him by the American people – a betrayal that risked harming the national security of this country.” John Demers Assistant Attorney General for National Security