WASHINGTON, April 8 - Federal prosecutors on Wednesday unsealed an indictment charging a former U.S. Army employee with providing classified material to a journalist who used some of that information in a book alleging drug trafficking, murder and corruption at a military installation where she had worked, the Department of Justice said.
Court papers identify the defendant as Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina. The federal grand jury returned the indictment on allegations that Williams transmitted classified national defense information to people not authorized to receive it, including a reporter, the Justice Department said in a statement. Prosecutors allege the conduct violated a provision of the U.S. Espionage Act.
According to the Justice Department, Williams was employed from 2010 through 2016 by a special military unit stationed at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While assigned there she held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance, the complaint states.
Prosecutors say the exchanges at issue occurred between 2022 and 2025. During that period, Williams allegedly engaged in repeated communications by phone and text message with a journalist who was investigating the unit for an article and a book. The department's statement said the two spoke by phone for more than 10 hours in total and exchanged in excess of 180 messages.
Although court filings did not name the reporter, media accounts indicate that journalist Seth Harp wrote a book published last year titled "The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces" and an accompanying article. Those works identified Williams as a source and attributed particular statements to her.
The Justice Department said some of the statements ascribed to Williams in the book and article included classified national defense information. Prosecutors also allege that Williams made unauthorized disclosures of national defense information through her social media accounts.
Williams, the complaint states, signed a classified information non-disclosure agreement both when she joined the special military unit in 2010 and again when she left that assignment. A representative for Williams could not immediately be reached for comment, according to the department.
Following the indictment, the journalist identified in reporting on the book described Williams as a "courageous whistleblower who exposed rampant gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the U.S. Army's Delta Force." The journalist also said Williams wanted to be identified by name in his work and characterized the charges as "vague and weak."
The Justice Department cited messages sent by Williams around the time the book was published in which she expressed concern about the amount of classified information being disclosed. Prosecutors further noted that Williams sent a message to another, unnamed person saying she feared she might be arrested for making disclosures.
Free-speech advocates have raised broader concerns about how the current administration is handling leaks by government employees who are critical of U.S. policies and actions, and prosecutors have sometimes pursued cases against sources who provided information to the media. The Justice Department's statement noted that prior U.S. administrations have on rare occasions also pursued legal cases against sources of leaks to the media that aimed to expose government wrongdoing, including matters dating back to the Vietnam War era and continuing into this century.
The indictment against Williams centers on alleged unauthorized transmissions of classified national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it, including a journalist, and the government is pursuing those alleged violations under applicable statutes governing national security disclosures.