The front gate of the Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, former workplace of Slater. (Image via visitomaha.com)
Staff Writer: Maya Arruda
Email: marruda7@umassd.edu
Have you ever heard of an old person being catfished on a dating website?
Of course, you have. It’s one of the most common stories in the digital age: some sad old man meets a supposed 20 or 30-year-old woman online who asks for money or gifts, and the old man naively forks it over without seeing a picture.
Normally, the catfish victim is asked for monetary items. However, in the case of David Franklin Slater, a supposed Ukrainian woman he met on a foreign dating website didn’t ask for his money or expensive gifts. Instead, she asked him for classified government information about the Russia-Ukraine war.
He gave it to her.
63-year-old David Franklin Slater, retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel and now former civilian U.S. Air Force employee, had leaked classified information from his job at the Offutt air base for the U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) to someone he met on a dating site between February and April 2022.
Due to his job dealing with sensitive government information, Slater signed an NDA in 2021 and had been given job training on how to deal with said sensitive government information as part of his civilian position on the base.
Clearly, Slater had missed the lecture where they said not to leak information as part of a slapdash seduction technique online. Rookie mistake.
He was subsequently arrested for his casual dispersal of government secrets to “rizz-up” “women” online on March 2, 2024, two years after he betrayed his country.
For one reason or another, Slater was removed from his post at USSTRATCOM in April 2022, to his “girlfriend’s” undoubted disappointment. There is no official statement that he was removed for using classified information to woo suspicious internet women, but his removal should be noted nonetheless.
The U.S. attorney’s office, the FBI, and the Air Force’s Special Investigations Office are cooperating on a joint investigation into Slater’s case, even after his arrest.
On March 5, Slater was put on trial in Nebraska for one count of conspiracy to disclose national defense information and two counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information. The counts are for violations of Title 18 of the United States Code, clauses 793 (g) and 793 (d), respectfully.
The full legal complaint against Slater can be found here.
The March 5 trial ended with the judge in charge of the case (United States of America vs. David Franklin Slater), Micheal D. Nelson, declaring that more evidence must be gathered before a definitive ruling can be made due to the complex nature of the case. Both the defendant and the plaintiff agreed to this request.
Judge Nelson ordered the government had until April 8, 2024 to provide Rule 16 discovery. Slater and his defense team must file a pre-trial by April 22, 2024. Slater is essentially safe from further legal prosecution for this case until April 22, after the government investigation and legal paperwork.
Rule 16 Discovery is a federal rule regarding discovery and disclosure procedures in criminal court cases. In short, this means the government and the defendant must compile legally admissible evidence for the court, including documents, witnesses, and all that kind of stuff that you see in an American courtroom drama.
Given the content of Slater’s online “girlfriend” and legal co-conspirator’s messages, it is genuinely funny and terrifying that Slater sold government secrets about an ongoing war for the infinitely minuscule chance of bumping uglies with a woman from Ukraine. It sounds like it should be a comedy skit on a Netflix show, not something that actually happened in real life.
Perhaps the best way for the nation to prevent similar instances in the future is to provide an additional mandatory training module for all its employees, especially those working with classified military information, on recognizing the signs of a catfish scam online.
Nothing will be able to wash away the shame of being known internationally as the country that was sold out for a really low-skill catfish scam.