(The Center Square) – Hearings are expected this week in the case of an Army veteran charged with violating the Espionage Act between 2022 and 2025 from her time spent with an elite Fort Bragg unit between 2010 and 2016.
Courtney Williams, 40, shared classified information with a journalist, says the complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice. She was indicted on Wednesday a day after arrest.
“We trust our war fighting individuals to cooperate as a team to protect our military and country,” said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina Ellis Boyle. “We will pursue criminal charges to keep these warriors safe whenever we find leakers exalting their own feelings over the safety of the United States.”
Williams had a top secret/sensitive compartmented information security clearance while working for a special military unit, says the Department of Justice in a release.
The Justice Department said in part, “As a clearance holder, Williams received training as to the proper handling, safeguarding, and storage of classified information. Williams also signed a Classified Nondisclosure Agreement which, in relevant part, confirmed her understanding that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information could constitute a criminal offense. In her role at the SMU, Williams had daily access to a broad range of classified information.”
The reporter and specific unit are not identified in court documents. Dates and details, published reports say, match an article and book about the Army’s Delta Force written by Seth Harp.
Harp’s published release of “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” with accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination, came out in 2025 when Politico published a story under the headline, “My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.”
The Justice Department said telephone and text messages between the journalist and Williams totaled 10 hours and more than 180 messages over the three-plus years. In a message to someone different than the journalist, Williams wrote in part, “I might actually get arrested.”
Prosecutors said Williams in one communication wrote she was “probably going to jail for life.” And, she said she knew her entire career the risk and consequences for disclosure of classified information.
Harp has since publicly defended Williams as a whistleblower and honest.
The case investigation is led by the FBI’s field office in Charlotte. Logan Liles, assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, is joined by trial lawyers Menno Goedman and Matt Hracho of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section in prosecuting the case.
