Patel announces arrest of former SOCOM worker who allegedly leaked classified information to media

FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday that his office has arrested a former United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) employee who has been accused of leaking information to the press.

Patel said the arrest was made with help from the Justice Department, the FBI's Charlotte office and the FBI Counterintelligence & Espionage Division.

The director did not specify what information the former employee leaked to the news media or what the information was about and did not identify the former staffer. 

"FBI and our partners have arrested a former SOCOM employee, who supported our top-level military warfighters, for allegedly transmitting classified information to a member of the media," Patel wrote on X. 

"Let this serve as a message to any would-be leakers: we’re working these cases, and we’re making arrests," he continued. "This FBI will not tolerate those who seek to betray our country and put Americans in harm’s way."

It comes after President Donald Trump threatened to jail the person responsible for divulging to the media that the U.S. was searching for the second crewman of a downed F-15 plane last week, which he said alerted Iranians to the search and made the U.S. recovery more difficult.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.