The FBI arrested James Thomas Ashbacher, 37, a resident of Spring Lake, North Carolina, on Tuesday, accused of posting classified military operation material on social media, unlawfully retaining secret documents at his home, and stealing a night vision goggles system from the U.S. Army, as reported by the Department of Justice.
Ashbacher worked from approximately 2021 until March 2024 for a private company that provided security and emergency management services at a facility of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and held a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI).
According to the formal accusation, the former contractor photographed and removed unauthorized videos and images of classified military operations and posted them on an unidentified social media platform.
The material spread when other users redistributed it on a second platform, at which point Ashbacher allegedly tried to contain the damage: he contacted a user via private message asking them to delete part of the content and acknowledged that he was "trying to do damage control."
When FBI agents searched his home, they found a classified military recognition document containing additional national defense information, as well as a night vision goggles system specific to a USASOC unit that had been reported missing.
The formal charges include the illegal transmission of information related to national defense, the illegal retention of such information, and theft of government property.
The case is being investigated by the FBI office in Charlotte, with substantial support from the Criminal Investigation Division of the U.S. Army. The prosecution is being handled by trial attorney Leslie Esbrook from the Counterintelligence and Export Control Section of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney Logan Liles from the Eastern District of North Carolina.
The arrest occurs against a backdrop of growing concern over leaks of classified information connected to personnel with access to sensitive military systems.
In April of this year, the FBI arrested a former employee of SOCOM accused of leaking classified information to a journalist.
That same month, Chief Sergeant Gannon Ken Van Dyke, also stationed at Fort Bragg, was arrested for using classified information regarding the capture of Nicolás Maduro to place bets on the Polymarket platform and obtain profits exceeding 400,000 dollars.
FBI Director Kash Patel had publicly warned that the agency would investigate and make arrests in all cases of classified information leaks, without exception.
The Department of Justice emphasized in its statement that "a formal charge is merely an allegation, and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court."
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