A former U.S. service member was accused of leaking classified information about Delta Force to a journalist

A former U.S. Army employee named Courtney Williams was arrested and charged with leaking classified details about a covert military unit to a journalist, according to several court documents made public Wednesday. Federal prosecutors allege in a criminal complaint that Williams illegally shared top-secret information with an unidentified reporter between 2022 and 2024 related to her time in Delta Force, an elite Army special mission unit (SMU).

Court documents indicate she was arrested Tuesday and ordered to remain in custody pending a preliminary hearing scheduled for April 13. The filing notes that the former Army employee had a top-secret security clearance after working for that military branch between 2010 and 2016, after serving as both an enlisted soldier and a contractor. Her access to classified material was suspended prior to her departure in 2016 due to "an internal investigation" conducted in 2015 and 2016.

Up to 10 years behind bars

Williams was prominently featured in a Politico story, where she spoke publicly about alleged improprieties within Delta Force. The article in which her words appear was adapted from a book that would be published shortly thereafter. An FBI affidavit included in the complaint alleges that Williams and the journalist "discussed William's employment at the SMU and associated information" through text messages and "consistent and extensive phone conversations." Similarly, investigators claimed that the former Army employee provided different types of documents containing classified national defense information, including both notes and photographs, that would eventually be published in both the book and the article. Also, investigators stated that Williams transmitted any and all of these materials via a removable hard drive and emails in multiple shipments.

As the Justice Department noted in a statement, between 2022 and 2025, Williams communicated with the journalist on multiple occasions by phone and text message. "During this period, Williams and the Journalist had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages. In one such message, the Journalist identified themselves as a journalist and stated that they sought information about the SMU in support of an upcoming article and book," the agency said.

Williams now faces a charge of illegally transmitting national defense information, which is a felony that carries a possible sentence of up to 10 years in prison if convicted.