Former defense intelligence employee charged with leaking classified information to press set to be arraigned
30-year-old Henry Frese worked at the Defense Intelligence Agency, which focuses on gathering intelligence related to defense and military matters; Leland Vittert reports.
A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency employee accused of leaking classified information to journalists will remain in custody ahead of his arraignment Friday on federal charges related to the leaks.
The arraignment and detention hearing for Henry Kyle Frese has been set for Friday at 11 a.m. in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Frese, 30, a counterterrorism analyst who held a top-secret clearance at the DIA, had started as a contractor in January 2017 before working at the agency full time. He faces two counts of willful transmission of national defense information to persons not entitled to receive it, charges that come with up to 10 years in prison each.
The prosecutor said he wanted to wait on a pretrial services report before holding an arraignment, which was originally scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday.
Between April and May 2018, Frese allegedly accessed classified intelligence reports – some of which were unrelated to his job duties – and leaked secret information regarding a foreign country’s weapons system to a reporter, according to court documents.
Attorney General for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger, right, accompanied by Assistant United States Attorney Danya Atiyeh, left, announce the arrest of Henry Kyle Frese, a Defense Intelligence Agency official charged with leaking classified information to two journalists, including one he was dating, during a news conference outside the federal courthouse in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2019. The Associated Press.
The documents accused Frese of being romantically involved with one of the reporters to whom he allegedly leaked information.
A criminal indictment said a first reporter wrote at least eight articles from five compromised intelligence reports leaked by Frese. It said Frese re-tweeted a link to one of the articles that used the information he allegedly had provided.
The first reporter then asked Frese if he’d be willing to speak to another reporter, according to the criminal indictment. Frese allegedly said he was “down” to help the second reporter if it helped the first reporter “progress.”
The indictment also accused Frese of speaking about classified national defense information to the second reporter via his cellphone on Sept. 24, 2019. The disclosures reportedly contained information that "could reasonably be expected to cause serious harm to the national security of the United States."
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While speaking to reporters Wednesday, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Zach Terwilliger said he was focused on the leaker, not the journalists.
"If you leak info, you will be prosecuted," he said.
Fox News' Jake Gibson and Andres del Aguila and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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