Ex-US Army officer shared classified Russia-Ukraine war information on dating site
David Slater, 64, who had top-secret clearance at his job at the US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, pleaded guilty to a single count before a federal magistrate judge in Omaha on Thursday. In exchange for his guilty plea, two other counts were dropped.
Slater remains free pending his sentencing, which is scheduled for October 8. Prosecutors and his lawyers agreed that he should serve between five years and 10 months and seven years and three months in prison, and the government will recommend a term at the low end of that range. The charge carries a statutory maximum of 10 years behind bars.
US District Judge Brian Buescher will ultimately decide whether to accept the plea agreement and will determine Slater's sentence.
'I conspired to wilfully communicate national defence information to an unauthorised person,' Slater said in a handwritten note on his petition to change his plea.
Slater had access to some of the country's most closely held secrets, John Eisenberg, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement.
'Access to classified information comes with great responsibility,' said Lesley Woods, the US attorney for Nebraska, said in the same statement.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Is US pushing its Asian allies to do more to counter China?
Reports that a senior Pentagon official has been telling America's European allies to stay away from the Indo-Pacific may be a sign that Washington will ask its Asian allies to shoulder more responsibility for countering China, according to some analysts. On Tuesday, Politico reported that defence undersecretary for policy Elbridge Colby had tried and failed to stop Britain from sending an aircraft carrier to the Indo-Pacific. The report cited sources who interpreted the Pentagon's No 3 as 'basically saying 'You have no business being in the Indo-Pacific''. They added that he thought the United States does not 'need the Europeans to be doing anything' in the region. Liselotte Odgaard, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, said this might increase the pressure on US allies in the region to do more to help contain China. 'Asking Europe to leave doesn't mean they [the European countries] should not be tough on China. The US asks them to be much tougher in Europe on China with regards to export controls, their cooperation with Russia in the Arctic et cetera,' Odgaard said. 'But when it comes to [China]... the US doesn't want Europe to mess up its defence cooperation with its Indo-Pacific allies and its plans for military deterrence of China. There is a risk that Europe and Indo-Pacific allies join forces in resisting some US defence policies.'
South China Morning Post
3 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Driven by Trump's tariffs, US inflation accelerated 2.7% in June
Inflation rose last month to its highest level since February as President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs are pushing up the cost of a range of goods, including furniture, clothing, and large appliances. Advertisement Consumer prices rose 2.7 per cent in June from a year earlier, the Labour Department said on Tuesday, up from an annual increase of 2.4 per cent in May. On a monthly basis, prices climbed 0.3 per cent from May to June, after rising just 0.1 per cent the previous month. Worsening inflation poses a political challenge for President Donald Trump, who promised during last year's presidential campaign to immediately lower costs. The sharp inflation spike of 2022-2023 was the worst in four decades and soured most Americans on former president Joe Biden's handling of the economy. Higher inflation will also likely heighten the Federal Reserve's reluctance to cut its short-term interest rate, as Trump is loudly demanding. Trump has often insisted in comments on social media that there was 'no inflation' and that as a result, the central bank should swiftly reduce its key interest rate from its current level of 4.3 per cent to around 3 per cent. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core inflation increased 2.9 per cent in June from a year earlier, up from 2.8 per cent in May. On a monthly basis, it picked up 0.2 per cent from May to June. Economists closely watch core prices because they typically provide a better sense of where inflation is headed. Advertisement
South China Morning Post
5 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Trump's team is waking up to the reality of rivalry with Russia
Advertisement This may surprise some observers, especially critics of Trump who consider him supportive of Putin's aims. The view that Trump sympathises with Russia, or is perhaps compromised by it, has never gone out of style, even though there have always been problems with the theory. For one, Trump's first administration was far more at odds with Putin's government – over the Korean peninsula, Syria, Iran and over sanctions – than it was aligned. The first Trump administration included Republican politicians who were more opposed to Putin's government than the US president himself, including then vice-president Mike Pence, Central Intelligence Agency director-turned-US secretary of state Mike Pompeo, UN ambassador Nikki Haley and defence secretary James Mattis – the latter of whom declared Russia a 'strategic competitor'. However, Trump has publicly expressed admiration for Putin , more than he did for liberal democratic politicians such as former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau or former German chancellor Angela Merkel. But admiration and alignment are not the same. For example, Trump has been consistently complimentary of Chinese President Xi Jinping , even as he hammers China with tariffs and other penalties Advertisement That said, isn't Trump's second administration different in temperament from his first? Instead of Pence, Trump now has the avowed 'post-liberal' J.D. Vance as vice-president, who has declared his indifference to how the Ukraine conflict ends and stated his sympathy for far-right figures such as Curtis Yarvin, who are rooting for Russia's success.
