Former airman Daniel Everette Hale, 31, of Nashville, Tennessee, is scheduled to make his initial appearance in federal court later Thursday, the Justice Department said.
He is accused, in part, of printing 36 documents from his NGA computer in 2014, including 23 unrelated to his duties at the agency, and providing "at least 17 to the reporter and/or the reporter's online news outlet, which published the documents in whole or in part. Eleven of the published documents were classified as Top Secret or Secret and marked as such."
The indictment of Hale comes amid a spate of court cases the Justice Department has opened against alleged government leakers — ranging from charges against two individuals who allegedly passed internal banking information to news outlets and others and to the high-profile arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange last month following his indictment for conspiracy to commit a computer crime.
Some of the cases have prompted questions over press freedom and furthered critics' concerns over the Trump administration's response to damaging news stories.
Hale had first begun communicating with the reporter in April 2013, while he was working as a cleared defense contractor at NGA, according to the indictment.
The 11 classified documents that were published by the reporter's online news outlet, and later in a book, included PowerPoint presentations on military and counterterrorism operations and a document describing a military campaign targeting al Qaeda overseas.
Hale faces five charges, including obtaining national defense information; retention and transmission of national defense information; causing the communication of national defense information; disclosure of classified communications intelligence information; and theft of government property. Each of the five counts carry a maximum of 10 years.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
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