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An individual previously employed by the Army, who held a top-secret security clearance, now faces charges for allegedly leaking classified information, as reported by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In a statement released Wednesday, the DOJ announced that Courtney Williams, aged 40 and a resident of North Carolina, was apprehended by the FBI on Tuesday. A federal grand jury indicted Williams on charges related to the “alleged dissemination of classified national defense information to unauthorized recipients, including a journalist,” according to the DOJ’s report.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg emphasized the gravity of the situation, stating, “Those entrusted with clearance have a profound duty to safeguard the classified information they handle.”
Eisenberg further noted, “Protecting this information is essential to our nation’s security, and any breach of this trust will prompt the National Security Division to take immediate action to ensure accountability.”
According to court documents, the DOJ detailed that Williams possessed a “Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance” and served with a Special Military Unit (SMU) for six years beginning in 2010.
From 2022 to 2025, Williams, who worked at Fort Bragg, allegedly talked to a journalist on multiple occasions on the phone and by text, the DOJ said.
“During this period, Williams and the Journalist had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages. In one such message, the Journalist identified themselves as a journalist and stated that they sought information about the SMU in support of an upcoming article and book,” the DOJ said in its press release.
“After these communications with Williams, the Journalist published a book and article that named Williams as a source and attributed specific statements to her. Some of these statements contained classified national defense information.”