WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st April, 2021) A former US Air Force enlisted man and former National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA) analyst has admitted leaking classified information to the media, the Department of Justice announced in a press release.
"A former intelligence analyst and former military service member pleaded guilty today to illegally obtaining classified national defense information and disclosing it to a reporter," the release said on Wednesday.
Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, served as an enlisted airman in the US Air Force from July 2009 to July 2013. After receiving language and intelligence training, Hale later worked as an intelligence analyst for a defense contractor at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the release said.
"Hale has now admitted what the evidence at trial would have conclusively shown: that he took classified documents from his work at the NGA, documents he had no right to retain, and that he sent them to a reporter, knowing all along that what he was doing was against the law," Assistant US Attorney General John Demers said in the release.
In February 2014, while working at the NGA, Hale printed six classified documents unrelated to his work and soon after exchanged a series of messages with a reporter. Hale pleaded guilty to retention and transmission of national defense information, and he faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison when sentenced, the release said.
