A former U.S. Army employee and Army veteran who helped support a special military unit has been arrested by the FBI and charged with sharing classified information with a journalist.
According to a Department of Justice release, between 2022 and 2025, Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, repeatedly communicated with the journalist via telephone and text messages, transmitting "classified national defense information to individuals not authorized to receive it."
The Justice Department calims that Williams, while working for a Special Military Unit (SMU) at Fort Bragg and holding a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance from 2010-16, received training as to the proper handling, safeguarding, and storage of classified information and also signed a Classified Nondisclosure Agreement which 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.
Williams and the journalist had over 10 hours of telephone calls and exchanged more than 180 messages, according to the release. In one message, the journalist identified themselves as a journalist and said that they sought information about the SMU in support of an upcoming article and book.
Following the communications with Williams, the journalist published a book and article that named Williams as a source and attributed specific statements, some of which contained classified national defense information.
The reporter and unit were not named by the Justice Department, but The Associated Press reported that the details and dates match an article and book about the Army’s secretive Delta Force written by Seth Harp.
Williams was the focus of Harp's article in Politico with the headline: “My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit," which coincided with the release of his book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel,” which alleges sexual harassment and discrimination, according to The AP.
On the day the article and book were published, Williams exchanged several messages with the journalist, according to the release. In one such message, Williams said she was “concerned about the amount of classified information being disclosed.” In a separate message to a third party, she added that, “I might actually get arrested... for disclosing classified information.”
In another message, Williams cited a statutory provision of the Espionage Act. And when asked how she knew that she may face legal consequences for her disclosures to the journalist, Williams responded, “I have known my entire career,” adding that “they tell you everyday... 100 times a day.” Finally, in a message to a different third party, Williams stated that she was “probably going to jail for life.”
Williams also made unauthorized disclosures of national defense information via her social media accounts, the release states.
“Courtney Williams swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, but she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing classified information with a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division in the release.
Williams faces a charge of unlawful transmission of national defense information, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
