Air Force veteran indicted for leaking weapons secrets

A U.S. Air Force veteran has been indicted by a federal grand jury for unauthorized possession and transmission of classified national defense information.

The charges against Paul J. Freeman, 68, of Niceville, Florida, were announced after he made his initial appearance in federal court in Pensacola, Florida on June 27, according to a DOJ release.

The indictment alleges that Freeman, on multiple occasions between November 2020 and March 2021, transmitted classified national defense information about Air Force aircraft and weapons to people not authorized to access the information.

If convicted, Freeman faces up to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment on each of the nine counts in the indictment.

In March, Massachusetts Air National Guard Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty in federal court to accessing and printing hundreds of classified documents and posting images of them on the social media platform Discord.

The Teixeira case led the Pentagon to review its security programs and how it tracks insider threats.

Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com .