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https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-air-force/2019/05/09/ex-air-force-intelligence-analyst-charged-with-leaks-to-reporter/
Ex-Air Force intelligence analyst charged with leaks to reporter
ALEXANDRIA, Va. โ A former government intelligence analyst has been charged with leaking classified documents about military campaigns against terrorist group al-Qaida to a reporter.
Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, was arrested Thursday morning and will make an initial appearance at the federal courthouse there, authorities said. An indictment in Alexandria, Virginia, charges him under the Espionage Act with counts including obtaining and disclosing national defense information, as well as theft of government property.
According to the indictment, Hale worked as an intelligence analyst for the Air Force and later as a contractor assigned to the governmentโs National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency.
The indictment says Hale began communications with a reporter in 2013 while at the Air Force and continued communications after going to NGA.
According to the indictment, Hale provided 11 Top Secret or Secret documents to the reporter and his online news outlet. Those documents were later published either in whole or in part.
They include a secret memo outlining a military campaign against al-Qaida overseas, a top secret intelligence report on an al-Qaida operative, and a secret PowerPoint slide โoutlining the effects of the military campaign targeting Al-Qaeda overseas,โ according to the indictment.
At an initial appearance Thursday afternoon in the federal courthouse in Nashville, U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern ordered Hale released under pretrial supervision pending his next hearing, which is May 17 in Alexandria.
One of Hale's attorneys โ Jesselyn Radack, who specializes in representing whistleblowers โ said the investigation of Hale had essentially lay dormant for five years up until Hale's arrest. She said the Trump administration is continuing and escalating what she called "a toxic trend" started under the Obama administration of aggressively prosecuting legitimate whistleblowers.