A former government contractor has been arrested by the FBI for allegedly leaking national defense information on social media, according to the Justice Department.
James Ashbacher of Spring Lake, North Carolina, was apprehended Tuesday.
The Justice Department said in addition to the alleged leak, he unlawfully retained other national defense information at his residence and stole night vision goggles from the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command.
People were interested in these podcasts
Mr. Ashbacher was charged with unlawfully transmitting and retaining national defense information and with theft of government property.
In or about 2021, Mr. Ashbacher worked at a private company that provided security and emergency management services at the Special Operations Command facility in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, according to the indictment.
He held a top secret security clearance.
Mr. Ashbacher photographed and removed videos and images of classified military operations, transmitting the material to an unnamed social media site. The classified information was then reposted by other users to a second site.
In a private message, he asked a social media user to remove some material and said he was “trying to do some damage control,” according to the indictment.
He said, “take ’em down, tuck them away, and repost them in a year or two when my contract ends lol,” according to the indictment.
“Just trying to save my a—. … It is what it is,” he said, adding that he knew “a bunch of dudes probs saved everything but trying to do some damage control lol If not, it’s all good bro, I understand. It was fun while it lasted.”
A search of his residence also revealed a classified award write-up, which contained additional national defense information, along with a night vision goggle system that had been reported missing.
Contact the author
Please read our comment policy before commenting.