Active-Duty US Army Soldier Charged With Allegedly Leaking Military Secrets to Russia

The Department of Justice alleges that Taylor Adam Lee attempted to illegally share information about the M1 Abrams tank.

The Department of Justice headquarters in Washington on Aug. 29, 2020. Andrew Kelly/Reuters

The Justice Department announced on Aug. 6 that it has charged an active-duty soldier for allegedly attempting to transmit national defense information to a foreign adversary, among other counts.

Taylor Adam Lee, 22, is accused in a criminal complaint of seeking to “transmit sensitive national defense information to Russia” relating to how to operate the United States’ primary battle tank, the M1 Abrams, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said in a statement.

Court documents said Lee is an active-duty U.S. Army soldier with a top-secret security clearance who was stationed at Fort Bliss, Texas. According to prosecutors, starting in May 2025, Lee attempted to send U.S. military defense information to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Sometime in June, Lee allegedly sent technical information about the M1 Abrams tank and said he wanted to provide assistance to Russia, writing online that the United States was “not happy” with him “for trying to expose their weaknesses” and that he would “even volunteer to assist the Russian federation ... in any way.”

Officials said Lee was attempting to swap the sensitive information for Russian citizenship.

A version of the M1 Abrams tank has been provided by the U.S. military to Ukrainian forces, who have been battling Russian troops in Ukraine for the past three years.

During a meeting in July, Lee allegedly gave an SD card with documents and other information about the M1 Abrams and U.S. military combat operations to an individual he believed was working on behalf of the Russian government.

The documents contained technical data Lee was not authorized to provide, and some were marked “Controlled Unclassified Information,” according to prosecutors.

“This arrest is an alarming reminder of the serious threat facing our U.S. Army,” Brig. Gen. Sean F. Stinchon, the commanding general of Army Counterintelligence Command, said in a statement released by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

“Soldiers who violate their oath and become insider threats will absolutely be caught and brought to justice, and we will continue to protect Army personnel and safeguard equipment.”

In addition to the alleged breach of the Espionage Act of 1917, which makes it a federal crime to mishandle U.S. defense information, Lee was charged with violating the Arms Export Control Act for allegedly trying to export technical data without a license.

Lee has not yet entered a plea on the charges, which were filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas. Attorney information for Lee was not immediately available.

Lee’s arrest comes as the U.S. military has been forced to deal with online espionage incidents in recent years. In April, a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Korbein Schultz, was sentenced to 84 months in prison for conspiring to collect national defense information for the Chinese Communist Party, among other charges, the DOJ has said.

Last year, a former Air National Guard intelligence official, Jack Teixeira, was sentenced to 15 years in a federal prison after he pleaded guilty to transmitting classified national defense information online.

Reuters contributed to this report.