A former military contractor from North Carolina is facing federal espionage charges after authorities say she leaked classified information about an elite Army unit to a journalist, potentially endangering national security.
Federal prosecutors have charged Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, with violating the Espionage Act for allegedly disclosing sensitive details about her work supporting a specialized military unit at Fort Bragg.
“Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving and damages our nation’s security,” said Reid Davis, FBI special agent in charge for North Carolina, in a Department of Justice statement.
According to federal officials, Williams broke her sworn commitment to protect national secrets during her time as a contractor and later employee supporting Army special operations.
“Williams swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, but she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing classified information with a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk,” stated Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division.
Williams appeared in Raleigh federal court Wednesday, where a magistrate judge made public the charges that were initially filed last week. She remains in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service with additional hearings scheduled for next week.
Court documents do not identify Williams’ attorney, and a family member reached by phone declined to provide comment on the allegations.
While court papers don’t specify the journalist or military unit involved, the timing and circumstances align with a 2025 Politico story titled “My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.” The article accompanied journalist Seth Harp’s book “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” which details allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination.
Harp defended Williams in a statement to WRAL-TV, calling her “a brave whistleblower and truth-teller.”
“Former Delta Force operators disclose ‘national defense information’ on podcasts and YouTube shows every day, but the government is going after Courtney for the sole reason that she exposed sexual harassment and gender discrimination in the unit,” Harp’s statement read. “This is a vindictive act of retaliation, plain and simple.”
FBI Special Agent Jocelyn Fox detailed in court documents that Williams received security clearance as a defense contractor in April 2010 before becoming a Defense Department employee that November.
In her role as an operational support technician, Williams had access to “Tactics, Techniques and Procedures” used for planning and executing “sensitive missions” within the special military unit, Fox wrote.
Williams lost her classified access following an internal investigation, and she was debriefed in September 2015 when she signed additional nondisclosure agreements, according to the FBI agent.
Federal investigators allege Williams maintained contact with the unnamed journalist from 2022 through 2025, during which time they had more than 10 hours of phone conversations and exchanged over 180 messages.
Fox referenced a text message Williams allegedly sent around the time the book and article were published.
“Other than a few factual errors, I would definitely have been concerned with the amount of classified information being disclosed,” Williams’ message stated, according to court papers. “I thought things I was telling you so you could have a better general understanding of how the (SMU) was set up or operated would not be published and it feels like an entire TTP (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) was sent out in my name giving them a chance to legally persecute me.”
The FBI affidavit also cited a conversation Williams had with her mother.
“I might actually get arrested, and I don’t even get a free copy of the book,” Williams allegedly told her mother. When asked why she might face arrest, Williams responded “for disclosing classified information.”
Investigators have identified at least 10 collections of documents that Williams apparently planned to share with the journalist, Fox wrote in the court filing.
