UPDATE: On June 23, 2021, Thompson was sentenced to 23 years in prison for delivering classified national defense information to an unauthorized individual whom she knew to be associated with the Lebanese Hezbollah.
“Thompson’s sentence reflects the seriousness of her violation of the trust of the American people, of the human sources she jeopardized and of the troops who worked at her side as friends and colleagues,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “That Thompson passed our nation’s sensitive secrets to someone whom she knew had ties to Lebanese Hezbollah made her betrayal all the more serious. Thompson’s sentence should stand as a clear warning to all clearance holders that violations of their oath to this country will not be taken lightly, especially when they put lives at risk.”
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A little over a year ago, Mariam Taha Thompson, a forward deployed Arab linguist, was arrested for transmitting sensitive classified information to Hezbollah. On March 26, Thompson pled guilty to “one count of delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government.”
Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers for the Justice Department’s National Security Division, described how “Thompson jeopardized the lives of members of the U.S. military as well as other individuals supporting the United States in a combat zone when she passed classified information to a person, she knew was connected to Lebanese Hezbollah, a foreign terrorist organization which intended to use the information to hurt this country.”
Thompson held a Top Secret government security clearance and had access to the identities of human source of intelligence. She began her dalliance with her co-conspirator in 2017 via “video-chat on a secure text and voice messaging application.”
Following the death of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force commander Qasem Suleimani, her co-conspirator began asking her, in January 2020, to provide information about “human assets who had helped the United States to target Suleimani.”
She immediately began, in earnest, to cull information from the classified information systems to which she had access. The DOJ tells us, that “Thompson had used her access to classified national defense information to provide her co-conspirator with the identities of at least eight clandestine human assets; at least 10 U.S. targets; and multiple tactics, techniques and procedures. Thompson intended and had reason to believe that this classified national defense information would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of Lebanese Hezbollah.”
Court documents dated April 28, 2020 indicate that the application used by Thompson and her terrorist love interest was WhatsApp and these conversations were included in the classified materials availed by the DOJ for review by Thompson and her attorney in the court’s SCIF noted classified disclosures totally over 2913 pages. Additionally, the DOJ availed via unclassified discovery which included Apple subscriber info, AT&T subscriber data and pen registers, WhatsApp pen registers, Oath account information, and Microsoft account information.
Discussing the responsibility to maintain the trust bestowed upon each individual who holds a national security clearance, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI Washington Field Office, Steven M. D’Antuono said, ““Holding a Top Secret government security clearance bears a responsibility and commitment to our nation, and betrayal of that trust will not be tolerated.”
