Air Force civilian employee charged with relaying classified intel on Ukraine on dating site

A civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force has been charged with sharing classified information related to the Russia-Ukraine war on a foreign online dating website, the Department of Justice announced Monday.

The indictment alleges that David Franklin Slater, 63, transmitted national defense information about the war in Ukraine on a foreign online dating platform and over email with an unidentified alleged female co-conspirator. He was arrested Saturday for allegedly conspiring to transmit and transmitting classified information.

The indictment notes Slater was a civilian employee assigned to the United States Strategic Command located in the District of Nebraska who had attended briefings on the war that were classified as up to top secret. Slater had retired as an Army Lieutenant Colonel around Dec. 31, 2020, and had worked in a classified space at the U.S. Strategic Command between August 2021 and April 2022, according to the indictment.