Air Force veteran charged with leaking secrets about weapons 'vulnerabilities'

An Air Force veteran and former civilian employee was indicted this week on charges of leaking classified information about USAF aircraft and weapons.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Florida announced the grand jury indictment against Paul J. Freeman on June 27, after Freeman was arrested and made his first appearance in federal court.

Federal officials allege that Freeman “transmitted classified national defense information about United States Air Force aircraft and weapons to persons unauthorized to access that information” on multiple occasions in 2020 and 2021. Nine-count indictment says Freeman shared information “related to vulnerabilities” of the United States. Air Force aircraft and weapons.

Freeman is due to appear in U.S. court on July 1 for a detention hearing in Pensacola, Florida.

An Air Force spokesperson identified Freeman as a retired lieutenant colonel and development engineer who entered the service in 1975 as an enlisted aviator, was commissioned as an officer in 1984 and took retiring in 2003. His last active duty position and title was operations officer with the 46th Test Squadron at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., which is near his listed home of Niceville, in Florida.

Freeman appears to have joined the service as a civilian after retiring. Records from a separate 2019 court case indicate that an individual identified as Paul J. Freeman of Niceville, Florida, was hired as a civilian in 2003 as an engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory. The Air Force could not confirm whether the two cases involve the same person. The Justice Department has refused to release any further information beyond its release and indictment.

According to court records from the 2019 case, Freeman sought relief after the Air Force terminated him from his position at the AFRL munitions directorate. Records show Freeman was involved in a special access program, meaning he was in a class of highly classified programs with additional safeguards and controls. Working on this program from 2007 to 2012, records indicate that Freeman “sent two emails containing classified information from his home computer…to unauthorized recipients, including multiple media outlets, government agencies, officials and military commanders who were not authorized to receive. such information. Records indicate Freeman refused to report to his workplace after a 10-day suspension.

Special access programs require individuals to sign nondisclosure agreements and follow other protocols.

According to court documents, Freeman did not dispute sending the emails, but argued in his appeal that his disclosures were covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 and said he had refrained from returning to work because he feared for his safety. A panel of Federal Circuit judges at the United States Court of Appeals rejected his appeal, finding that Freeman did not qualify for whistleblower protection and that he was in no danger by returning to work.

The unauthorized disclosure of classified information remains a major concern among military and national security officials. Just this week, the commander of U.S. Cyber ​​Command, Gen. Timothy D. Haugh, sounded the alarm about China’s ongoing efforts to exfiltrate technology secrets from U.S. defense contractors, for example. And the ongoing case of Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guard member accused of sharing hundreds of top-secret and classified documents on online chat rooms via his screen name and Discord persona, has prompted the Pentagon to undertake several reviews of its security programs and how it tracks insider threats.

At the same time, officials have warned that China is seeking to recruit American military pilots and operators to train its own airmen and gain knowledge of American tactics, techniques and procedures. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a bulletin earlier this month warning against such moves, and in February the Air Force warned that the Chinese were recruiting American “pilots, maintainers, air operations center personnel and a variety of other technical experts” to bolster their expertise.