CIA Contractor Held Over Leaks of Secret Israel, Iran Reporting

A US contractor holding Top Secret clearance was arrested Friday after the Department of Justice accused him of moving classified Middle East intelligence to a writer who published it online.

The FBI took Ian Brinksman, 42, into custody on a criminal complaint. The Justice Department said Brinksman worked for a US government agency in Virginia starting in 2020, then moved to a contractor role at the same agency in 2022. His clearance covered Sensitive Compartmented Information. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that Brinksman provided services to the agency as a contractor.

Investigators described a pattern. Brinksman's workplace bars personal electronics, but records show him entering the facility, opening specific Top Secret reports, leaving the building, and calling a person the Justice Department calls Individual 1. Articles containing material from those reports appeared on Substack shortly after the calls. The complaint alleges Brinksman passed data from at least five Top Secret intelligence reports, none of it within his assigned duties, and that disclosure could cause exceptionally grave damage to US national security.

An affidavit in the case includes an email Brinksman sent to a friend about a woman he had started seeing who writes for Substack. The Justice Department and FBI have not named Individual 1. Reporting by the Jerusalem Post, Ynet and the New York Post points to Aida Chavez, who writes for the Substack publication Capital & Empire. Chavez has not been charged or officially tied to the case.

Articles published by Chavez on the dates cited in the affidavit refer to a confidential US intelligence assessment, a classified CIA assessment and a classified CIA analysis. The material centers on Israel, US-Israel ties and the war with Iran. The affidavit states that Brinksman is accused of supplying the information used in that reporting.