For nearly 4 many years, Kevin Charles Luke lived a lifetime of service and sacrifice to the US.
A retired Army fight veteran who labored as a high-level civilian contractor at Central Command at MacDill Air Drive Base, Luke was lengthy entrusted with a few of the nation’s most delicate secrets and techniques.
However it was an ill-conceived effort to impress a girl that precipitated the previous colonel’s exceptional downfall.
On Tuesday, a federal decide sentenced Luke to 2 years in jail for sharing categorised battle plans with a girl he was courting.
Luke, 62, stood in a Tampa courtroom weeping as he addressed U.S. District Decide James Moody.
“I stand earlier than you accepting full duty for my actions,” he mentioned. “What I did was incorrect. I violated the belief positioned in me and, sir, I’m ashamed of that.”
The sentence was lower than the three to 4 years recommended by federal pointers. After jail, Moody ordered Luke to spend a 12 months on probationary supervision and to endure a psychological well being analysis.
The decide famous the problem of balancing the totality of Luke’s life, together with his adorned service, with the seriousness of his crime.
“This can be a tough sentencing,” Moody mentioned.
Luke pleaded responsible in November to a cost of unauthorized communication of data referring to the nationwide protection.
He spent 37 years within the Army earlier than he retired in 2018 with the rank of colonel. Thereafter, he continued to work as a civilian army contractor. He retained a “high secret” safety clearance.
He labored at Central Command in Tampa, the headquarters for U.S. army operations within the Center East.
In October 2024, Luke met a girl on-line, who was not within the army, based on court docket data. He started speaking along with her by electronic mail. On Oct. 1, he despatched her a textual content message with an accompanying picture by means of his private mobile phone.
“Despatched to my boss earlier,” he wrote. “Offers you a peek at what I do for a dwelling.”
The picture confirmed a pc display displaying a categorised electronic mail message, based on court docket data. The message mentioned what was described as a “then-future U.S. army operation.” It included particulars concerning the date of the operation, the variety of targets and battle plans.
Authored by Luke, the message bore markings that learn “SECRET//REL TO USA, FVEY.” That meant the e-mail’s contents may solely be seen by licensed personnel in what’s referred to as the “5 Eyes” intelligence alliance, which incorporates the U.S., the U.Okay., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
A plea settlement, signed by Luke and federal prosecutors final September, doesn’t establish the operation. However Luke despatched the picture days earlier than Central Command launched a collection of airstrikes in Yemen, directed on the Houthi motion, an Islamic fundamentalist army pressure.
The strikes had been a part of a broader marketing campaign referred to as Operation Poseidon Archer, which was a response to the group’s assaults on ships within the Pink Sea. The U.S. drew help within the operation from a number of allied nations, together with these within the 5 Eyes alliance.
The settlement states that there is no such thing as a proof that Luke’s disclosure of the e-mail was treasonous or that he obtained any monetary or different profit from a international entity.
Court docket data as an alternative indicated that he merely was making an attempt to impress the girl “with out contemplating the bigger ramifications.”
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Lindsey Schmidt argued in a sentencing memo that Luke’s courtship of the unnamed girl jeopardized the nation’s secrets and techniques and endangered the lives of his fellow service members and residents.
“The USA positioned distinctive belief in Luke for a really very long time,” Schmidt wrote. “Luke betrayed that belief.”
In court docket Tuesday, it was revealed that the girl disclosed to authorities what Luke shared along with her after they broke up.
“This was, sadly, a story as outdated as time,” mentioned protection lawyer Mark O’Brien. “A person making an attempt to impress a girl. The person ended the connection. The girl later went to the federal government and informed on him.”
About two months after Luke despatched the girl the message, federal brokers executed a search warrant at his house.
Inside, they discovered extra categorised paperwork, together with 4 emails and a spiral pocket book that bore a sticker studying “secret.” Luke was not licensed to maintain the paperwork at house, prosecutors mentioned, and it’s unknown if anybody else could have seen them.
As O’Brien sought a sentence to spare Luke jail time, he in contrast the case to that of retired Normal David Petraeus, whose sharing of categorised data together with his biographer got here to mild by way of a Tampa-borne scandal.
In 2015, Petraeus admitted to a misdemeanor cost that he unlawfully retained categorised information, which prosecutors mentioned he allowed his biographer to entry. Petraeus obtained probation.
Schmidt, the prosecutor, argued that Petraeus’ case was not comparable; she asserted that the overall solely retained categorised data whereas Luke transmitted it to another person.
She cited a number of different circumstances from current years by which former army and intelligence officers had been despatched to jail for disclosing categorised data.
The circumstances included that of Robert Birchum, a former MacDill airman who in 2023 admitted that he saved lots of of categorised paperwork in his Tampa house. Birchum received three years in jail.
In court docket Tuesday, O’Brien emphasised Luke’s 37 years of service, which included a fight deployment throughout essentially the most risky interval of Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was injured in a bomb blast throughout counterinsurgency operations.
Years later, he was recognized with a traumatic mind harm and post-traumatic stress dysfunction. He was married and divorced thrice. He’s grappled with different well being issues.
Regardless of Luke’s struggles, his lawyer described him as a loving father, well-educated and a religious Christian.
A stack of letters from his household, pals and former army colleagues attested to a person who was mentioned to be reliable {and professional}.
Steven Hirschkowitz, a fellow retired colonel, informed the decide Luke is a person of “unquestionable loyalty,” “the very best character,” and a “pillar of energy.” His crime was “a singular lapse in judgment in an in any other case spotless profession.”
Raj Ambay, a medical physician who served in fight alongside Luke, credited him with saving many lives.
“If I had been to belief my life in somebody’s palms, it might be that man proper there,” Ambay mentioned, gesturing to a protection desk.
Luke’s misconduct had left him “shredded inside,” the physician mentioned. He opined that the crime shouldn’t overshadow his service to others.
“Sure, he had a lapse in judgment,” Ambay mentioned. “However I do know I’ve seen greater lapses within the information and in all places else.”
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