RALEIGH, N.C. — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing categorized details about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official mentioned put the nation, members of the U.S. navy and the nation’s allies in danger.
Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is accused of violating federal legislation, in addition to a number of nondisclosure agreements by sharing particulars of her work with a “particular navy unit” at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“Anybody divulging info they vowed to guard to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s safety,” Reid Davis, the FBI particular agent in cost in North Carolina, mentioned in a U.S. Justice Division information launch.
Williams “swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets and techniques as an worker supporting a Particular Army Unit of the Army, however she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing categorized info with a media outlet and placing our nation, our warfighters, and our allies in danger,” Roman Rozhavsky, an assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, mentioned within the assertion.
Williams, who’s particularly charged with violating a provision of the Espionage Act, appeared Wednesday in Raleigh federal court docket, the place a Justice of the Peace decide unsealed the case towards her, initially filed late final week, based on on-line court docket data. She was ordered held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending hearings set for early subsequent week.
Courtroom data didn’t instantly identify Williams’ lawyer. A person who answered a cellphone and recognized himself as a member of the family of Williams declined to touch upon the fees Wednesday.
Though the reporter and unit are usually not named within the court docket filings, dates and particulars match an article and e-book concerning the Army’s secretive Delta Drive written by Seth Harp.
Williams was the main target of a 2025 Politico article with the headline: “My Life Turned a Dwelling Hell: One Lady’s Profession in Delta Drive, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.” It coincided with the discharge of Harp’s e-book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” which alleges sexual harassment and discrimination.
In a press release printed by WRAL-TV, Harp known as Williams “a courageous whistleblower and truth-teller.”
“Former Delta Drive operators disclose `nationwide protection info’ on podcasts and YouTube exhibits day-after-day, however the authorities goes after Courtney for the only real cause that she uncovered sexual harassment and gender discrimination within the unit,” Harp’s assertion learn. “It is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and easy.”
Based on an FBI affidavit connected to the grievance, Williams was cleared as a protection contractor in April 2010 and have become a Division of Protection worker in November 2010.
She carried out duties inside the particular navy unit as an operational assist technician accountable for “Techniques, Methods and Procedures” utilized in preparation for and through “delicate missions,” Particular Agent Jocelyn Fox wrote within the affidavit.
Based on Fox, Williams’ entry to categorized info was suspended “based mostly on an inner investigation.” Fox mentioned Williams was debriefed in September 2015 and signed a nondisclosure settlement.
The federal government alleges that Williams had been in touch with the unnamed journalist between 2022 and 2025.
“Throughout this era, Williams and the Journalist had over 10 hours of phone calls and exchanged greater than 180 messages,” the information launch mentioned.
Fox cited a textual content between the 2 she mentioned occurred on or concerning the day the e-book and article have been printed.
“Aside from a couple of factual errors, I’d positively have been involved with the quantity of categorized info being disclosed,” Williams’ textual content learn, based on the affidavit. “I assumed issues I used to be telling you so you may have a greater basic understanding of how the (SMU) was arrange or operated wouldn’t be printed and it looks like a complete TTP (Techniques, Methods and Procedures) was despatched out in my identify giving them an opportunity to legally persecute me.”
Fox additionally cited an alleged trade between Williams and her mom.
”`I would truly get arrested, and I don’t even get a free copy of the e-book,’” the affidavit learn. “When her mom requested why she could also be arrested, Williams responded `for disclosing categorized info.’”
Fox wrote that the investigation to date has recognized not less than 10 batches of paperwork gathered that Williams meant to offer to the journalist.
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Related Press author Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
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