FBI Arrests Former Special Operations Contractor Accused of Leaking Classified Military Videos Online
by David Hawkins
The FBI arrested a former government contractor accused of posting classified military footage on social media, exposing sensitive information about U.S. special operations capabilities before attempting to cover his tracks.
James Thomas Ashbacher, a North Carolina resident who worked at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command facility at Fort Bragg, faces charges of unlawfully transmitting and retaining national defense information and stealing government property.
Federal prosecutors allege Ashbacher photographed and removed classified materials, shared them online, and later urged another user to hide the posts until his contract ended.
Classified Footage Allegedly Exposed Military Tactics
Ashbacher worked for a private company providing security and emergency management services at the facility from approximately 2021 through March 19, 2024, according to the Justice Department.
His position required a Top Secret security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information access.
Prosecutors allege he nevertheless removed videos and photographs of classified military operations marked SECRET and transmitted them to a social media platform.
Other users subsequently reposted the materials on a second platform.
The indictment describes nine or ten videos, including six that revealed unit-specific tactics, techniques, procedures, and call signs associated with a specialized military unit’s organizational structure.
Another video contained information about specialized Alternative Compensatory Control Measures programs.
Other footage posed a risk that foreign adversaries could develop ways to defeat or counter the capabilities it demonstrated, prosecutors said.
The indictment alleges Ashbacher “knew that the stolen Classified Materials contained classified information that related to the national defense” and that disclosure “could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation.”