Intelligence Employee Leaked Top Secret Information to Reporter With Whom He Was Romantically Involved, Feds Say

An employee for the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Wednesday on accusations that he disclosed classified information to two journalists, one of whom he had a romantic relationship with, the Justice Department said.

Henry Kyle Frese, 30, of Alexandria, was charged with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information, each carrying a maximum of 10 years imprisonment.

Federal prosecutors say Frese, whose government security clearance allowed him access to top secret and sensitive information, accessed multiple classified intelligence reports and leaked information about a foreign country’s weapons systems to a journalist. Authorities say some of the reports Frese accessed were unrelated to his job duties.

“Frese was caught red-handed disclosing sensitive national security information for personal gain,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said in a statement. “Frese betrayed the trust placed in him by the American people – a betrayal that risked harming the national security of this country.”

Lib Mayor Defends ‘Violence Intervention’ Activists After Yet Another Gets Arrested

Major Car Maker Issues Recall Over Engine Issue That Could Make Vehicle Stall

EXCLUSIVE: Collins pits record built in Maine potato fields against Platner’s ‘angry rhetoric’

Why This Tech Company Wants to Release 32 Million Mosquitos Into the US

Kennedy Center takes down Trump’s name: Photos

Trump Develops Plan to Get His First Term Impeachments Expunged: ‘I Did Nothing Wrong’

Kennedy Center workers start to remove Trump’s name after overnight deadline

Talarico touts Texas roots as out-of-state cash powers Senate campaign

‘Hell on wheels’ killer Mackenzie Shirilla lands prison job while serving life sentence for fatal 2022 crash

Hasan Piker celebrates America being ‘closer than ever’ to socialism as he backs NYC candidates

James Talarico Calls Biden’s Border ‘Utter Chaos’ In Attempted Immigration Rebrand

Menendez brothers eyed $20M insurance payout after parents’ murders, Jose’s ex-business partner claims

Who is Bill Essayli, the hard-charging prosecutor at the center of California’s election fight?

Rahm Emanuel road-tests emphasis on policy over Trump-hatred

Platner’s ‘deranged’ response to Musk becoming a trillionaire sparks online outrage: ‘Loserthink’

The unauthorized disclosures to the two reporters happened in 2018 and 2019. Prior to that, from August 2017 to August 2018, Frese and one of the reporters lived together and appeared to have been involved in a romantic relationship, authorities say. They did not name the two journalists involved and did not say what their media affiliations were.

In April 2018, after Frese accessed one of the intelligence reports, the journalist asked if he’d be willing to speak with another reporter, prosecutors say. Frese then said he was “down” to help the second journalist — a colleague at an affiliated but different news outlet, authorities say.

The journalist whom authorities believe had a relationship with Frese published six articles related to information that Frese leaked, authorities say.

Federal authorities said Frese was “captured” last month on court-authorized surveillance of his cell phone orally transmitting classified national defense information to the second journalist

“Henry Kyle Frese was entrusted with top secret information related to the national defense of our country,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney in Alexandria, Va. “Frese allegedly violated that trust, the oath he swore to uphold, and is charged with engaging in dastardly and felonious conduct at the expense of our country. This indictment should serve as a clear reminder to all of those similarly entrusted with National Defense Information that unilaterally disclosing such information for personal gain, or that of others, is not selfless or heroic, it is criminal.”