Defense Intelligence Agency analyst is arrested for ‘leaking classified weapons information to two reporters, including one he was romantically involved with
- Henry Kyle Frese, 30, was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly leaking classified materials to two journalists
- He allegedly leaked the information about a foreign country’s weapons system to two journalists in 2018 and 2019
- Frese had top security clearance in his role as a counterterrorism analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency
- Authorities say Frese was in a romantic relationship with one of the reporters
A Defense Intelligence Agency analyst has been arrested for allegedly leaking classified materials to journalists, including one he was having a romantic relationship with.
Henry Kyle Frese, 30, was arrested on Wednesday over charges he leaked the information about a foreign country’s weapons system to two journalists in 2018 and 2019.
The information the counter-terrorism analyst allegedly leaked to a journalist with whom he was apparently romantically involved appeared in at least eight different news stories.
Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Henry Kyle Frese, 30, was arrested on Wednesday. Pictured above is director of Defense Intelligence Agency Gen. Robert Ashley
Frese, who had top security clearance, is charged with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
He was allegedly living with the reporter at the same address in Alexandria, Virginia, at the time.
Frese is accused of speaking to the two reporters in April 2018 just hours after he searched a classified government computer system.
The first journalist then published an online article about 30 minutes later that contained classified national defense information.
Frese allegedly spoke to the second journalist over the phone in September 2019 and gave them classified information.
At that point, Frese’s phone was being tracked on court-authorized surveillance.
The Justice Department did not identify the journalists or their news outlets but said they each worked for a different outlet owned by the same parent company.
Authorities said the disclosure of the classified materials could have caused serious harm to U.S. national security.
This marks the sixth federal case involving leaks of classified information in a little over two years.
A crackdown on leakers was initiated by the Trump administration in 2017 and led by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.