Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a former U.S. Army veteran who allegedly shared classified military secrets with a journalist writing about corruption and criminal activity at a North Carolina military installation.
Courtney Williams, 40, from Wagram, North Carolina, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday for allegedly transmitting classified national defense information to unauthorized individuals, including a reporter, according to the Department of Justice. The charges fall under the U.S. Espionage Act.
The indictment highlights ongoing tensions between government transparency and national security as free-speech advocates continue expressing worries about aggressive prosecution of government employees who leak information to the press.
From 2010 to 2016, Williams served with a specialized military unit at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where she maintained a “Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance,” federal officials stated.
According to prosecutors, Williams engaged in extensive communication with a journalist between 2022 and 2025, participating in over 10 hours of phone conversations and exchanging more than 180 text messages. The reporter was gathering material for both an article and book about Williams’ former unit.
Though court documents don’t name the journalist, author Seth Harp published “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces” last year, along with a related article that identified Williams as a source and quoted her statements directly.
Federal prosecutors claim some of Williams’ quoted statements contained “classified national defense information.” They also allege she made unauthorized disclosures of sensitive national defense details through her personal social media profiles.
Attempts to reach Williams’ legal representation were unsuccessful.
Following the indictment announcement, Harp defended Williams, describing her as a “courageous whistleblower who exposed rampant gender discrimination and sexual harassment in the U.S. Army’s Delta Force.” He noted that Williams requested to be identified by name in his reporting and characterized the federal charges as “vague and weak.”
The Justice Department referenced text messages Williams sent to the journalist around the book’s publication date, in which she voiced worries “about the amount of classified information being disclosed.” Prosecutors also said she messaged another unidentified person expressing fears about potential arrest related to her disclosures.
When Williams joined the special military unit in 2010 and again upon her departure, she signed classified information non-disclosure agreements, according to the criminal complaint.
Previous presidential administrations have occasionally pursued legal action against sources who leaked information to journalists attempting to expose government misconduct, with cases dating back to the Vietnam War-era “Pentagon Papers” and more recently involving Iraq war documents.
