A 22-year-old soldier stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas, was arrested Wednesday on espionage charges.
Taylor Adam Lee was arrested in El Paso, Texas, on criminal charges of attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary and attempted export of controlled technical data without a license.
Lee holds a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, according to a justice department release. From May to the time of his arrest, Lee sought to establish his U.S. Army credentials and send defense information to Russia’s Ministry of Defense.
In June, Lee allegedly transmitted export-controlled technical data on the M1A2 Abrams tank online and offered assistance to the Russian Federation, stating, “the USA is not happy with me for trying to expose their weaknesses. At this point I’d even volunteer to assist the Russian federation when I’m there in any way.”
In a July in-person meeting with a person Lee believed to be a Russian government representative, he allegedly passed an SD card to the individual. Lee then provided a detailed overview of the documents and information on the SD card, including documents and information on the M1A2 Abrams, another armored fighting vehicle used by the U.S. military for combat operations.
Several of the documents contained controlled technical data that Lee did not have the authorization to provide. Other documents on the SD card were marked as Controlled Unclassified Information and featured banner warnings and dissemination controls.
Throughout the meeting, Lee said the information on the SD card was sensitive and likely classified.
During the July meeting and afterward, Lee talked about obtaining and providing to the Russian government a specific piece of hardware inside the M1A2 Abrams tank. On July 31, he delivered what appeared to be the hardware to a storage unit in El Paso.
Afterward, he sent a message to the individual he believed to be a Russian government representative stating, “Mission accomplished.”
“Lee allegedly violated his duty to protect the United States in favor of providing national defense information to the Russian government,” Steven J. Jensen, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, said in a statement. “The FBI is steadfast in our commitment to protect U.S. national security and bring to justice those who seek to undermine it.”
“This arrest is an alarming reminder of the serious threat facing our U.S. Army,” Brigadier General Sean F. Stinchon, the commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in a statement. “Thanks to the hard work of Army Counterintelligence Command Special Agents and our FBI partners, Soldiers who violate their oath and become insider threats will absolutely be caught and brought to justice, and we will continue to protect Army personnel and safeguard equipment.”
Todd South has written about crime, courts, government and the military for multiple publications since 2004 and was named a 2014 Pulitzer finalist for a co-written project on witness intimidation. Todd is a Marine veteran of the Iraq War.
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