U.S. counterterrorism analyst pleads guilty to media leaks

A U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency counterterrorism analyst pleaded guilty on Thursday to charges he leaked classified materials about a foreign country's weapons system to two journalists in 2018 and 2019, the U.S. Justice Department said. Henry Kyle Frese, 31, who pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison when he is sentenced on June 18, the department said in a news release.

"Frese violated the trust placed in him by the American people when he disclosed sensitive national security information for personal gain," said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security. "He alerted our country's adversaries to sensitive national defense information, putting the nation's security at risk," Demers said.

Information that Frese passed to the journalists appeared in at least eight different news stories, which were based on five separate intelligence reports, according to court documents. The two reporters to whom he leaked information were colleagues, and one of them was apparently romantically involved with Frese, the FBI said in court filings.

The Justice Department did not identify the two journalists or their news outlets but said they worked for two separate outlets owned by the same parent company. Public Twitter messages referenced in the court filings indicate Amanda Macias, a national security reporter for CNBC, was one of the journalists.

The filings also reference public Twitter messages that indicate the other reporter was Courtney Kube, a national security correspondent for NBC. Both CNBC and NBC are owned by Comcast. Macias authored or co-authored with Kube a number of articles during the timeframes cited in the court filings that reference U.S. intelligence reports and weapons systems of foreign nations such as China and Russia.

Neither reporter was accused of any wrongdoing. Macias and Kube did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)