Former Army Employee Arrested for Leaking Classified Military Information

Courtney Williams, a former Army employee from North Carolina, was arrested Tuesday by the FBI and charged with leaking classified national defense information to a journalist, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday. Williams, 40, held a top secret security clearance during her military work from 2010 to 2016. Court documents allege she communicated with a reporter from 2022 to 2025, exchanging over 10 hours of phone calls and more than 180 messages.

The journalist, identified as Seth Harp, an investigative reporter and Army veteran, published an article and a book on August 12, 2025, both naming Williams. The book, titled “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces,” and the Politico Magazine article detailed Williams’ experiences working at Fort Bragg, the headquarters of the Joint Special Operations Command and Delta Force. Williams described facing sexual harassment and discrimination within the unit, filing grievances and discrimination claims that led to retaliation and the eventual loss of her security clearance.

Court documents state that Williams provided classified documents, photographs, notes, and other materials to the journalist via removable hard drives and emails in multiple batches. The FBI affidavit notes that officials overseeing the classification of the Special Military Unit reviewed the published article and determined it contained information classified as SECRET.

On the day the article and book were published, Williams expressed concern to the journalist about the amount of classified information disclosed. She also told her mother in a text message that she feared arrest for disclosing classified information and cited a provision of the Espionage Act. Prosecutors charged Williams with one count of illegally transmitting national defense information, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. She was ordered detained pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 13.

Harp defended Williams on social media, calling her a “courageous whistleblower who exposed rampant gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the US Army’s Delta Force.” He asserted that the indictment was intended to retaliate against her for seeking to improve workplace conditions and expressed confidence that the case would not hold up under scrutiny. FBI Director Kash Patel stated that the arrest should serve as a warning to potential leakers, emphasizing that the FBI will not tolerate actions that betray the country or endanger Americans.

The Defense Department referred inquiries to the Army, which did not immediately comment. The Pentagon has stated it maintains a zero-tolerance policy for harassment. Williams is represented by a federal public defender in the Eastern District of North Carolina. The arrest comes shortly after former President Donald Trump threatened to jail journalists over leaked information concerning a missing airman following a fighter jet incident in Iran.