National Security and Leaks

A federal judge in Florida sentenced retired U.S. Army Col. Kevin Charles Luke, 62, to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty in October 2024 to unlawfully transmitting national‑defense information by texting classified war plans to a woman he met online. Prosecutors say that in October 2024, while working as a civilian employee at U.S. Central Command in Tampa with a top‑secret clearance, Luke used his personal phone to send her a photo of his government computer screen showing a classified email he had written about an upcoming U.S. military operation. The email, sent from his official CENTCOM account, detailed the number of targets, the planned date, the operation’s objectives and the means of execution, information the U.S. Attorney’s Office said could reasonably be expected to cause serious damage to national security if disclosed. Luke had signed a non‑disclosure agreement as recently as February 2019, underscoring that he knew his obligation to protect such material even after his 2018 retirement as a colonel following nearly four decades of service. The case highlights how insider mishandling of classified information, even via a single personal text, continues to be treated as a serious national‑security crime by federal prosecutors.