{"id":35330,"date":"2021-04-01T04:14:19","date_gmt":"2021-04-01T04:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2021\/04\/01\/ex-air-force-analyst-pleads-guilty-to-leaking-secrets-about-drone-program\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T21:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T21:08:49","slug":"ex-air-force-analyst-pleads-guilty-to-leaking-secrets-about-drone-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2021\/04\/01\/ex-air-force-analyst-pleads-guilty-to-leaking-secrets-about-drone-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Air Force analyst pleads guilty to leaking secrets about drone program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ALEXANDRIA, Va. \u2014 A former Air Force intelligence analyst pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaking classified documents to a reporter about military drone strikes against al-Qaida and other terrorist targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guilty plea from Daniel Hale, 33, of Nashville, Tennessee, comes just days before he was slated to go on trial in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, for violating the World War I-era Espionage Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hale admitted leaking roughly a dozen secret and top-secret documents to a reporter in 2014 and 2015, when he was working for a contractor as an analyst at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). While court papers never specified the recipient of the leak, details about the case make it clear that the documents were given to Jeremy Scahill, a reporter at The Intercept, who used the documents as part of a series of critical reports on how the military conducted drone strikes on foreign targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He faces up to 10 years in prison at sentencing scheduled for July 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/news\/your-military\/2021\/03\/28\/defense-contractor-pleads-guilty-to-sharing-classified-info-with-person-linked-to-hezbollah\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/635695463470389701-photo-gaveljpeg.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Defense contractor pleads guilty to sharing classified info with person linked to Hezbollah<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">A woman who worked as a contract linguist for the U.S. military in Iraq pleaded guilty Friday to sharing classified information with a romantic interest linked to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The original indictment against Hale states that he reached out to the reporter in April 2013 while still enlisted in the Air Force and assigned to the National Security Agency. The leaks continued after Hale became a private contractor and was assigned to NGA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hale\u2019s lawyers sought unsuccessfully last year to have the case tossed on First Amendment grounds. They also argued that the case was a selective and vindictive prosecution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Defense lawyers said that while Hale was being punished for leaking information about negative aspects of the drone program, the government seemed unconcerned about anonymous leaks by government officials about successful strikes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More broadly, they said use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers has a chilling effect on free speech and a free press. The law has been used by multiple presidential administrations in recent years against multiple whistleblowers. It also allows for prosecution of journalists who receive and publish the information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Eastern District of Virginia, where Hale pleaded guilty, has been a frequent location over the years for cases involving leaks and whistleblowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prosecutors there have filed criminal charges against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. Both remain overseas despite U.S. efforts to obtain their extradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2015, a judge imposed a 3 \u00bd-year sentence on former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who was convicted of exposing government secrets to a New York Times reporter. In 2013, another former CIA man, John Kiriakou, was sentenced to 2 \u00bd years in prison after pleading guilty to leaking a covert officer\u2019s identity to a reporter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kiriakou\u2019s indictment in 2012 prompted then-CIA Director David Petraeus to issue a statement reminding his agency\u2019s employees of the need for secrecy in their work. In 2015, Petraeus pleaded guilty in federal court in North Carolina to a charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified information. He was sentenced to probation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hale pleaded guilty to a single count of illegally retaining and transmitting national defense information, part of the Espionage Act. The other four counts against him were not dropped as part of the plea deal, as would be typical, but were placed in abeyance, giving the government at least the theoretical opportunity to bring the other counts to trial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Press and whistleblower advocates have urged President Joe Biden\u2019s administration to reverse course in prosecuting leak cases, particularly under the Espionage Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, said the Espionage Act makes no distinction between someone who discloses secrets to benefit a foreign adversary or to get paid, as opposed to someone who feels a moral obligation to disclose problems inside of government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jaffer is a former American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who spent years filing lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act seeking information about the drone program. He said those lawsuits ultimately yielded little information and credited whistleblowers like Hale for many of the disclosures that showed the drone program was not as precise in its strikes as the government portrayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/federal-oversight\/doj-fbi\/2018\/08\/15\/air-force-vet-facing-longest-sentence-ever-for-leaking-to-media\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP18177492368465.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Air Force vet facing \u2018longest sentence\u2019 ever for leaking to media<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Ex-National Security Agency contractor Reality Winner is scheduled for sentencing Aug. 23 by a federal judge in Augusta. She pleaded guilty in June.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said there\u2019s bipartisan awareness that the law poses problems and he\u2019s optimistic it will eventually be revised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThere\u2019s a recognition that the government\u2019s interest in protecting national security secrets is important, but it\u2019s not the only important thing,\u201d Jaffer said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But Raj Parekh, acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement that those entrusted with government secrets don\u2019t get to decide for themselves whether to keep them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThose who are entrusted with classified information have a duty to safeguard that information in order to protect our Nation\u2019s security,\u201d he said. \u201cAs an analyst for the Intelligence Community, Daniel Hale knowingly took highly classified documents and disclosed them without authorization, thereby violating his solemn obligations to our country.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A former Air Force intelligence analyst pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaking classified documents to a reporter about military drone strikes against al-Qaida and other terrorist 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By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ex-Air Force analyst pleads guilty to leaking secrets about drone program - Air Force TImes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A former Air Force intelligence analyst pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaking classified documents to a reporter about military drone strikes against al-Qaida and other terrorist targets.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Air Force analyst pleads guilty to leaking secrets about drone program\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Air Force intelligence analyst pleaded guilty Wednesday to leaking classified documents to a 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