U.S. soldier accused of making an attempt to offer Russia delicate Military tank information for citizenship
Federal authorities have arrested an American soldier who allegedly tried to share categorized details about the Military’s M1A2 Abrams tank with Russia, the Justice Division stated.
Taylor Adam Lee — a 22-year-old active-duty Military member stationed at Fort Bliss in Texas — was arrested Wednesday and charged beneath the Espionage Act with tried transmission of nationwide protection info to a overseas adversary, federal prosecutors stated in a press release. He was additionally charged beneath the Arms Export Management Act.
The Justice Division claimed Lee “transmitted export-controlled technical info on the M1A2 Abrams Tank on-line and supplied help to the Russian Federation.” Prosecutors accused Lee of making an attempt to swap the data for Russian citizenship.
Lee — who held a high secret safety clearance — allegedly wrote on-line earlier this yr, “the USA just isn’t proud of me for making an attempt to reveal their weaknesses,” and, “At this level I might even volunteer to help the Russian federation once I’m there in any means.”
Throughout a July in-person assembly, Lee allegedly handed an SD card with technical information and different info on Abrams tanks to an individual who he “believed to be a consultant of the Russian authorities.” He additionally allegedly mentioned giving Russia a chunk of {hardware} from the tank, and appeared to ship the {hardware} to an El Paso storage unit final week.
“Mission completed,” Lee messaged the individual, the Justice Division stated.
A warrant for his arrest was filed in El Paso federal courtroom on Tuesday. He was arrested and made his preliminary courtroom look the next day. A prison criticism didn’t look like filed in courtroom as of Wednesday, and it is unclear if Lee is represented by an lawyer.
“This arrest is an alarming reminder of the intense risk going through our U.S. Military,” Brig. Gen. Sean F. Stinchon, the commanding basic of Military Counterintelligence Command, stated in a press release.
Lee’s arrest comes because the navy grapples with on-line espionage and leaking threats.
Chinese language intelligence brokers have tried to focus on U.S. service members on-line and entice them into providing up delicate info in change for pay, a pattern some counterintelligence officers name “digital espionage,” CBS Information reported earlier this yr.
Individually, former Air Nationwide Guardsman Jack Teixeira was sentenced to fifteen years in jail final yr for sharing categorized paperwork concerning the Russia-Ukraine struggle on the messaging platform Discord. And a retired Military officer who labored as a civilian Air Drive worker pleaded responsible final month to sharing Russia-Ukraine struggle info on a courting app.
