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Former Air Force Intelligence Analyst Charged With Leaking Obama-Era Drone Secrets

Federal officials said Daniel Everette Hale, who was arrested Thursday, communicated with a reporter for months starting in 2013

The Justice Department on Thursday charged a former Air Force intelligence analyst who later became a government contractor with illegally leaking classified information to a reporter, NBC News reported.

Daniel Everette Hale allegedly communicated with the reporter for several months, starting at an April 2013 book tour event in Washington. He printed out 11 secret or top-secret documents about U.S. counterterrorism operations conducted under the Obama administration, according to the FBI.

While court documents didn't name the reporter, federal officials confirmed to NBC News that Hale leaked to Jeremy Scahill, a founding editor of The Intercept news website who wrote a 2015 article about drones based on documents "provided by a whistleblower."

Hale will be in court Thursday, hours after his arrest. He faces charges of illegally obtaining and disclosing classified national defense information and theft of government property.

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