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Navy Officer Charged With Giving Classified Information to a Russian National

Chief Petty Officer Charles Briggs faces a slew of charges, from disclosing classified information to obstructing justice to viewing child pornography.

A Navy sailor has been charged after allegedly disclosing classified information to a Russian national, The Virginian-Pilot reports. Chief Petty Officer Charles Briggs, who works at the Naval Medical Center in Portsmouth, Virginia, faces a slew of charges: unauthorized distribution of classified information obtained from a government computer, obstructing justice, communicating defense information, possessing child pornography, attempting to view child pornography, two counts of violating a general regulation and three counts of making false official statements. The Navy did not disclose what type of information he gave or to whom, but he allegedly accessed it on January 9, 2019 while stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska. He’s slated to be arraigned Wednesday.