FBI Arrests Ex-Army Employee Over Alleged Leak to Journalist

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday that a former employee of the US military had been arrested over the leak of “classified information to a member of the media.”

The Justice Department said in a separate statement that a woman identified as Courtney Williams had been indicted on charges of disclosing classified material to “a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk.”

Kash Patel

Photographer: Daniel Heuer/Bloomberg

The indictment was announced two days after President Donald Trump threatened criminal charges against journalists who published details of the military operation that led to the rescue of two American airmen in Iran after their warplane had been shot down.

The North Carolina indictment did not appear to be related to any investigation regarding the rescue efforts in Iran. Patel and the Justice Department did not say what information the former employee had been accused of providing or directly identify to whom.

Earlier: Trump Threatens to Jail Journalists Who Reported on Pilot Rescue

Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is alleged to have communicated with a journalist between 2022 and 2025, according to the DOJ statement, which says that she worked for the military from 2010 to 2016. The journalist was writing an article and a book that were later published, the Justice Department said.

After the publication of that book, the DOJ statement alleges that Williams told another individual in a message that she was “probably going to jail for life.”

Patel, in his social media post, did not identify the suspect, but said the individual had worked for the US Special Operations Command, which is headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.

Trump on Monday lashed out over news reports that mentioned that only one of two airmen had been rescued, claiming those stories jeopardized efforts to bring back the downed airman by alerting the Iranians.

“We have to find that leaker, because that’s a sick person,” he told reporters at the White House during a press conference at which he provided details of the complicated and daring search and rescue. “The person that did the story will go to jail if he doesn’t say. And I think everybody would understand they put this mission at great risk.”

The president did not name specific news outlets in those remarks. Trump has had an adversarial relationship with the press, regularly criticizing the media over its coverage of his administration.

“Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers,” Patel said in his post. “We’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests. This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”

To contact the reporter on this story:
John Harney in Washington at jharney2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Ben Bain at bbain2@bloomberg.net

John Harney, Meghashyam Mali

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