Former Air Force officer convicted in US for leaking classified data about Ukraine

The Lincoln County District Court on October 8 sentenced David Slater to 70 months in prison, a $25,000 fine, and one year of post-release supervision.

In July, Slater pleaded guilty to disclosing classified information related to national defense, after which two other charges were dropped.

The retired lieutenant colonel, who after his service worked as a civilian employee at the US Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, was detained back in 2024.

Despite being discharged from the army in 2020, he retained access to classified data and continued to attend closed briefings on the Russian-Ukrainian war.

According to the investigation, from August 2021 to April 2022, Slater passed the information he received through a dating site to a person who posed as a Ukrainian.