Incident Details
- Date of Incident
- October 9, 2019
- Location
- Alexandria, Virginia
A police booking mugshot released by the sheriff’s office in Alexandria, Virginia, shows U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency analyst Henry Kyle Frese after his arrest on charges of leaking classified materials to journalists.
Former counterterrorism analyst sentenced to over two years in prison for leaking classified documents
Henry Kyle Frese, former counterterrorism analyst for the Pentagon, was sentenced on June 18, 2020, to two and a half years in prison after pleading guilty to the willful transmission of classified information to two journalists.
Frese was arrested in October 2019 and charged under the Espionage Act for sharing information with the journalists. Court documents identified the reporters as Frese’s live-in girlfriend Amanda Macias, a national security reporter at CNBC, and Courtney Kube, a Pentagon reporter for NBC News, according to The New York Times.
“Frese repeatedly passed classified information to a reporter, sometimes in response to her requests, all for personal gain,” John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said in a statement released with the sentencing. “When this information was published, it was shared with all of our nation’s adversaries, creating a risk of exceptionally grave harm to the security of this country.”
While Frese faced a sentence of up to 10 years, his attorneys argued for a lower sentence, citing his willingness to refrain from further disclosures that could be damaging to national security. They also asserted that Frese had made the disclosures to bolster his relationship with Macias and advance her career.
Former counterterrorism analyst pleads guilty to leaking classified documents to two reporters
Henry Kyle Frese, former counterterrorism analyst for the Pentagon, pleaded guilty on Feb. 20, 2020, to the willful transmission of classified information to two journalists.
Frese was arrested in October 2019 and charged under the Espionage Act for sharing information with the journalists. Court documents identified the reporters as Frese’s live-in girlfriend Amanda Macias, a national security reporter at CNBC, and Courtney Kube, a Pentagon reporter for NBC News, according to The New York Times.
Frese will be sentenced on June 18 and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Henry Kyle Frese, a counterterrorism analyst for the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, was arrested when he arrived at work on Oct. 9, 2019, accused of leaking classified information about a foreign country’s weapons systems to two journalists.
Frese has been charged under the Espionage Act with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information, and could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on both counts, the Justice Department announced.
The Justice Department indictment details alleged contact with two journalists dating back to April 2018, at least some of which took place over Twitter direct messaging. Officials also allege that Frese was in a romantic relationship with one of the journalists, citing their shared home address from August 2017 to August 2018.
In a statement announcing the indictment, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Demers said, “Frese was caught red-handed disclosing sensitive national security information for personal gain.” The indictment alleges that Frese accessed at least three classified intelligence reports unrelated to his job and discussed their contents with the reporters.
The Wall Street Journal reported that while the reporters to whom Frese is accused of leaking are not named in the indictment, details suggest that the journalists are Amanda Macias, a national security reporter for CNBC, and Courtney Kube, a national security and Pentagon correspondent for NBC.
The indictment alleges that the first journalist, believed to be Macias, urged Frese to pass additional top secret information to one of her colleagues, and he agreed to do so to help advance her career. The indictment says cellphone surveillance from Sept. 24, 2019, caught Frese communicating national defense information to the second reporter, believed to be Kube.
In an affidavit supporting the seizure of Frese’s phone records, FBI Special Agent Donny Kim wrote, “There is probable cause to believe Frese committed violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(d) and (e), willful transmission of national defense information.” These sections are more commonly known as part of the Espionage Act.
Frese is the eighth person to be investigated by President Trump’s Justice Department for allegedly sharing confidential information with the press. The Trump administration is on pace to surpass the Obama administration’s record of the most prosecutions of alleged journalistic sources. During President Obama’s two terms in office, the Department of Justice brought charges against eight people accused of leaking to the media.
Carlos Martínez de la Serna, program director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement that these prosecutions can have a chilling effect.
"Prosecuting a civil servant under the Espionage Act puts leaking information of interest to the American people on a par with spying for a foreign county," Martínez de la Serna said.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogues press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
