Who is David Franklin Slater? All we know about the Air Force worker accused of sharing classified info on dating site

On Saturday, March 2, a retired lieutenant colonel, David Franklin Slater, was taken into custody. He has been accused of conspiring to transfer classified intelligence on a foreign dating site in early 2022. He was further accused of illegally revealing key national defense information.

According to court records, Slater allegedly corresponded with an anonymous person. The person was posing as a woman who lived in Ukraine. Slater then forwarded the specific secret Pentagon information regarding Russia's conflict there.

David Franklin Slater is a 63-year-old retired lieutenant colonel from the Army. He was employed by the United States Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. His most recent position was at USSTRATCOM as a civilian Air Force employee.

---

David Franklin Slater is a retired Air Force worker

Slater has been charged with leaking the national secrets (Image via Pexels)

According to court documents, David Franklin Slater gave sensitive Pentagon information on Russia's invasion of Ukraine to a person he thought was a Ukrainian woman who referred to him as her "secret informant love" via a foreign dating website.

Following the incident, Slater was charged in the indictment with working in a secret area at USSTRATCOM and possessing a Top Secret security clearance from August 2021 to April 2022, following his retirement as a Lieutenant Colonel from the US Army.

It is further claimed by the US Department of Justice that Slater willfully, improperly, and illegally transmitted information on a foreign online dating platform to an individual not authorized to receive such information that the NDI classified as "SECRET." This is why authorities believed these could be used to the detriment of the United States or the advantage of a foreign nation.

According to the US Strategic Command, the US military combatant command, or STRATCOM, is based at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. It is in charge of nuclear deterrence and command and control.

As per the court documents, David Franklin Slater had a Top Secret Security clearance while employed at STRATCOM and had taken training on handling sensitive government data.

Prosecutors have claimed that Slater began working for STRATCOM in August 2021 after leaving the army in 2020. He also attended top-secret briefings regarding the conflict in Ukraine around that time. The company stated that he worked for STRATCOM's Directorate of Logistics until 2022.

Slater then used the messaging feature of the international dating website to provide sensitive NDI information that he had learned from those briefings to his accomplice, who was posing as a woman from Ukraine on the foreign dating website.

Moreover, as per MSN, the co-conspirator referred to Slater in their chats as her "secret agent" and her "secret informant love." She frequently requested that Slater provide sensitive, non-public, securely guarded, and classified information.

Slater did give her access to the classified information in answer to her demands. This information included information about Russian military capabilities and targets about Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

---

The authorities have started investigating the matter related to David Franklin Slater

According to the Department of Justice's website, Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the National Security Division of the Justice Department addressed the event and stated,

“The Department of Justice will seek to hold accountable those who knowingly and willfully put their country at risk by disclosing classified information.”

As per the same source, Eugene Kowel, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Omaha Field Office, stated,

“The FBI investigates those who choose to illegally use their access to classified information to put our national security at risk.”

On the other hand, as per sources like Times Now News, David Franklin Slater may spend up to 10 years in federal prison for each of the charges if he is found guilty at trial. His initial court appearance is set for Tuesday, March 5, 2024.