A retired U-S Army lieutenant colonel who later worked as a civilian employee of the Air Force has ended Not Guilty pleas to federal charges that he shared classified information about Russia’s war with Ukraine on a foreign dating site.
63-year old David Slater was arrested Sunday and entered his pleas in federal court in Omaha on Tuesday. He was represented by a federal public defender, but the judge ordered Slater to hire his own attorney after reviewing his financial information.
The judge released Slater the next day under conditions that included surrendering his passport, remaining in Nebraska with GPS monitoring, and accessing the internet only if authorities can monitor his activities there.
Slater retired from the Army at the end of 2020 and began working at StratCom, the U-S Strategic Command, at Offutt Air Force Base in August 2021.
He’s charged with sharing classified information between February and March 2022 when he was attending briefings at StratCom about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war.
According to the indictment against him, Slater shared information about military targets on March 28 and gave out details about Russian military capabilities on April 13.
Both instances were in response to messages from an unindicted co-conspirator who claimed on a dating site to be a woman living in Ukraine.
Some of the inquiries investigators found in emails and on the online messaging platform of the dating site were included in the indictment, including “Dear, what is shown on the screens in the special room?? It is very interesting.”
Another reads “you were the first to tell me that NATO members are traveling by train and only now (already evening) this was announced on our news. You are my secret informant love! How were your meetings? Successfully?”
The judge confirmed during Tuesday’s hearing that Slater no longer has any access to classified information, but prosecutors didn’t share details of why his employment ended or how he became suspected of sharing such information.