“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media.”
The FBI has arrested a former Special Operations Command employee who allegedly leaked classified information to the press.
“FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media,” FBI Director Kash Patel said on Wednesday. “Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests. This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way.”
According to the Department of Justice, 40-year-old Courtney Williams of North Carolina was arrested yesterday and indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday. Williams worked for a Special Military Unit (SMU) and held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance. She is accused of transmitting “classified national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it.”
The allegations stem from claims that Williams repeatedly communicated with a journalist via telephone and text messages from 2022 to 2025. During this time, the journalist reached out for information to help write a book. Both the book and an article were published that named Williams as a source and attributed her to specific statements, some of which contained classified information.
When the book was published, Williams exchanged messages with the journalist, one of which stated that she was “concerned about the amount of classified information being disclosed.” She also wrote in a message to a third party, “I might actually get arrested… for disclosing classified information.”
“The tradecraft, tactics, and techniques used by the U.S. military unit in this case are classified and should be shared only with those with proper clearances and a need to know in order to protect American lives and safeguard classified National Defense information,” said Reid Davis, the FBI Special Agent in Charge in North Carolina. “These are serious accusations. Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security.”
