A civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force assigned to the U.S. Strategic Command, at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, was arrested  March 2 for allegedly conspiring to transmit and transmitting classified information relating to the national defense on a foreign online dating platform beginning in or around February 2022 until in or around April 2022.

USSTRATCOM is responsible for the U.S. military’s nuclear strategy, fleet and operations, including Malmstrom Air Force Base.

David Franklin Slater, 63, of Nebraska, worked in a classified space at USSTRATCOM and held a Top Secret security clearance from about August 2021 until about April 2022, after retiring as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army, according to a release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

The government has alleged that Slater willfully, improperly and unlawfully transmitted national defense information classified as “secret,” which he had reason to believe could be used to hurt the U.S. or to the advantage of a foreign nation, on a foreign online dating platform to a person not authorized to receive the information, according to the DOJ.

“As alleged, Mr. Slater, an Air Force civilian employee and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, knowingly transmitted classified national defense information to another person in blatant disregard for the security of his country and his oath to safeguard its secrets,” Asst. Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a release. “The Department of Justice will seek to hold accountable those who knowingly and willfully put their country at risk by disclosing classified information.”

“The FBI investigates those who choose to illegally use their access to classified information to put our national security at risk,” Special Agent in Charge Eugene Kowel of the FBI Omaha Field Office said in a release. “When people violate the trust given to them to safeguard our nation’s intelligence, they put our country at risk. We will continue working shoulder to shoulder with our partners to protect the American people and uphold the constitution by safeguarding our country’s classified information.”

According to the charging documents, Slater attended USSTRATCOM briefings regarding Russia’s war against Ukraine that were classified up to ‘top secret/sensitive compartmented information.’

Slater allegedly transmitted classified national defense information from those briefings via the foreign online dating website’s messaging platform to his co-conspirator, who claimed to be a female living in Ukraine on the foreign dating website, according to the DOJ.

The co-conspirator regularly asked Slater to provide her with sensitive, non-public, closely held and classified national defense information and referred to Slater in their messages her “secret informant love” and her “secret agent,” according to the release from the DOJ.

In response to her requests, the government alleges that Slater provided classified national defense information to her, including regarding military targets and Russian military capabilities relating to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the DOJ.

Slater made an initial court appearance March 5 in the District of Nebraska, according to DOJ.

If convicted, Slater faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000 for each count of conspiracy to transmit and the transmission of national defense information. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors, according to DOJ.

The FBI Omaha Field Office and Air Force Office of Special Investigations are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Kleine for the District of Nebraska and Trial Attorney Emma Dinan Ellenrieder of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.