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.”

Hasan Piker’s Claim He Doesn’t Hate America Clashes With That Time He Declared ‘I Hate America’

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll Resigns After Internal Disagreements

Ex-House Freedom Caucus chair says GOP isn’t ‘a conservative party anymore,’ but Democrats are ‘worse’

FLASHBACK: Mamdani torched for recycling 9/11 tributes after years of near-identical posts

AOC’s pivot for 2028 has begun. Will it work?

2 Grand Canyon flooding victims photographed on hiking trip in days before deaths

Teen arrested in girl’s murder one year after police said she accidentally shot herself while recording video

Trump Announces Plan to Help Ranchers Going Through Beef Market ‘Hell’

Top election schemes roiling key midterm races as both parties accuse rivals of trickery

Watch: Markwayne Mullin Goes Off on Reporter Who Tried to Downplay the Danger of Illegal Alien Truckers

Democrats’ generational battle erupts as 80-year-old senator faces younger challenger

Georgia cop kills beloved pet donkey in his own pasture as heartbroken owner demands justice: ‘We miss him’

Lindsay Clancy’s future could rest with ‘prosecution doctors’ as case echoes infamous Maine killings: expert

Get right out of town

WATCH: Maryland carjacking suspect plows toward cops as they open fire

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.”