Texas Soldier Arrested on Espionage Charges for Giving Information to Russia

(KNUE-FM) Texas is home to many true military heroes. We have so many Texans who have served our country honorably, and we cannot say thank you enough to those individuals.

Unfortunately, not everyone holds themselves to that same standard. According to My San Antonio, there was an active-duty soldier at Fort Bliss in El Paso who was recently arrested on charges of espionage after allegedly attempting to give classified military information to Russia.

Who Is Taylor Adam Lee?

22-year-old Taylor Adam Lee was arrested for attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary and attempted export of controlled technical data without a license. This is all according to a news release by the Justice Department.

If convicted Lee could face the death penalty or a prison sentence up to life in prison.

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What Military Secrets Were Targeted?

Federal prosecutors believe that Lee was attempting to give information regarding the M1A2 Abrams tank, which is the main tank used by the U.S. military.

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How Did the FBI Stop the Leak?

The leak attempt was not successful as the FBI and U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command was able to shut down any information leak.

Lee allegedly posted information online back in June which caught a lot of attention. But no information was leaked at the time.

But just last month Lee was meeting with who he believed to be a representative of the Russian government and passed an SD card. He told the person the SD card had information about the Abrams tank.

Conversations with this individual continued, even progressing to Lee delivering what appeared to be a piece of a tank to a storage unit in El Paso.

No initial court appearance has been set yet, and prosecutors are going to ask for no bond as they believe Lee is a flight risk with a criminal history.