In the past 10 years, cell phones have increasingly been the tool of choice for government employees and spies, seeking to steal or leak classified government information to share with foreign governments, the press, or the general public. Because bad actors can leak information via encrypted messaging apps, phone records are no longer a source for investigators, so leakers get away with it. Nonetheless, a few of those leaks have been prosecuted publicly. The table below details some of the cases that have made headlines. Many of those cases have resulted in substantial jail terms; some are so recent the sentences have not yet been delivered.
| Case | Date | Administration Impacted | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michael Charles Schena [Department of State: Document Theft & Sale to China] | 2022-2025 | Trump & Biden | Department of State employee, Michael Schena, was charged for Conspiracy to Gather, Transmit, or Lose National Defense Information. The complaint highlights that Schena had been caught this February when video surveillance allegedly observed him using a white, personal cellphone to take images of multiple documents, which were displayed on the monitor of his classified computer and marked as “SECRET” and then opening an application on his phone and sending these images. According to court documents, an investigation of Schena’s recovered electronic devices and communication records revealed Schena allegedly began illegally selling information to individuals via messaging platforms almost 3 years prior, in April 2022. Schena is alleged to have previously received payment from individuals for photographs and information sent over these platforms at least 12 seperate times since April 2022. Court documents also allege Schena had received an invoice for the receipt of “an iPhone 14 mobile device from Jason” and “79841 CNY.” Investigators believe that CNY is a reference to Chinese Yuan Renmenbi. Schena was immediately arrested outside his home, the same day surveillance footage observed him allegedly photographing his work monitor. Investigators allege he had a white Apple iPhone 14 on his person that was registed to a foreing number, and still contained photographs of the classified documents from his work monitor. | DOJ |
| Jian Zhao, Li Tian, Ruoyu Duan [Insider Military Document Theft Ring] | 2021-2025 | Trump & Biden | U.S. Army Supply Sergeant Jian Zhao & 1st Lt. Li Tian, stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord were charged with conspiring to obtain and transmit national defense information as well as bribery and theft of government property. The complaint alleges Zhao was recruited into an ongoing conspiracy to transmit classified military documents around July 2024 and continuously conspired to transmit classified information till the date of his arrest in March 2025. Zhao allegedly used several “end-to-end encrypted messaging applications” to communicate over voice and text with his co-conspirator, former army personell, Ruoyu Duan, and used his personal cellphone to take photos and videos of classified documents, including using a mobile application to scan documents page by page and using his phone to record several videos of his government computer screen. Zhao’s alleged communications provided in the complaint suggest he had gained significant familiarity in selling classified military information. Zhao allegedly told his co-conspirator for his most recent sale “If you want this I’ll take whatever you feel like . . . but in these couple of years, anything that touches himars, 3-4000 is the starting price. For you, 3000.” According to court documents, on or about Nov. 28, 2021, and continuing to at least on or about Dec. 19, 2024, Duan and Tian along with others, known and unknown to the grand jury, conspired with each other to surreptitiously gather sensitive military information related to the United States Army’s operational capabilities, including technical manuals and other sensitive information, and that Tian transmitted this information to Duan in return for money. Specifically, Tian was tasked with gathering information related U.S. military weapon systems, including information related to the Bradley and Stryker U.S. Army fighting vehicles, and transmitting them to Duan. | Task & Purpose |
| Asif Rahman [Top Secret Israeli Military Social Media Leak] | 2024 | Biden | CIA analyst Asif Rahman pled guilty to unlawfully transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information to unauthorized individuals. According to court documents, from Spring of 2024 to November 2024, Rahman repeatedly used his work station to access and print classified documents related to sensitive military plans regarding Israel. Rahman photographed these images and shared them to individuals online. On October 17th 2024, Rahman photographed and electronically sent two Top Secret documents to unauthorized individuals. These documents were then shared and published on social media. Rahman destroyed multiple electronic devices, including a personal cellphone he used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him. | DOJ |
| Abraham Teklu Lemma [Top Secret Document Leak to Foreign Intelligence] | 2022-2023 | Biden | According to court documents, Abraham Teklu Lemma, a U.S. government IT contractor with security clearance at the State Department and Department of Justice, allegedly violated espionage laws by gathering and transmitting classified information to a foreign intelligence official from Ethiopia. The complaint states in or around August and September 2022, Lemma Allegedly transmitted classified information, including documents, photographs, notes, maps, and information relating to the Relevant Country and neighboring countries over an encrypted messaging application on multiple occasions, including on the following two dates: First, in or around August 2022, Lemma transmitted satellite imagery from the region of the Relevant Country. This information was classified at the TOP SECRET level. Second, in or around September 2022, Lemma transmitted information related to a third-party country’s activities in the region of the Relevant County. This information was classified at the SECRET level. The affidavit also states that Lemma accessed classified intelligence reports without authorization, removed classification markings, burned the information onto CDs/DVDs labeled “Unclassified,” and took handwritten notes which he removed from secure facilities. | CNN |
| Korbein Schultz | 2022-2023 | Biden | Korbein Schultz, a U.S. Army intelligence analyst, plead guilty to charges of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and transmit national defense information to a foreign national. From approximately June 2022 through October 2023, Schultz used personal phones and encrypted messaging platforms to transmit classified information and communicate with “Conspirator A,” based in Hong Kong. Conspirator A adbised Schultz on secure communication methods, specifically intstructing him “to get a new phone and to set up a new account with a foreign electronic messaging application” to transmit files securely. Conspirator A directed Schultz to collect sensitive military information in return for payment. Schultz took photographs of confidential documents and photographs of his computer screen using his personal phone and transmitted them to Conspirator A over encrypted messaging applications. The information Schultz sent included technical manuals for the HH-60W helicopter, F-22A fighter aircaraft, and intercontinental ballistic missile systems. | DOJ |
| Jack Teixeira [Mass Classified Document Leak to Discord Groups] | 2022-2023 | Biden | Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, pleaded guilty in 2024 to unlawfully retaining and transmitting classified national defense documents. The indictment revealed that between 2022 and 2023, Teixeira used his personal smartphone to “photograph, film, [and] record” classified materials in secure government facilities, bypassing restrictions on electronic devices. According to court documents, he specifically took photos of printouts of classified documents that he had printed from secure intelligence systems. He transmitted these images via “online messaging platforms” and “social media applications,” including a private Discord server, where he shared “classified national defense information … to individuals not authorized to receive it.” Prosecutors noted Teixeira “took steps to conceal his actions,” including destroying evidence, but digital traces on his devices exposed the transfers. | Fox News |
| Patrick Wei & Thomas Zhao [Insider Ring of Classified Navy Leaks to China] | 2021-2023 | Biden | In 2021-2023, two U.S. Navy servicemen—Jinchao Wei (aka Patrick Wei) and Wenheng Zhao (aka Thomas Zhao)—were indicted for conspiring with a Chinese intelligence officer (identified as “Conspirator A”) to transmit sensitive U.S. military information to the People’s Republic of China in exchange for payments. Wei, a Machinist’s Mate on the USS Essex amphibious assault ship, and Zhao, a Construction Electrician in Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 3, are alleged to have used “multiple internet-based encrypted methods to communicate” with Conspirator A. Beginning in February 2022, Wei allegedly took photographs and videos of the USS Essex via his personal phone, including its weapons systems and potential vulnerabilities, and transmitted these materials through secure communication applications as instructed by Conspirator A, who told Wei to “send photographs and other material obtained through his service in the U.S. Navy through a particular secure communication application.” Similarly, Zhao allegedly photographed sensitive military materials using his personal phone, including “12 photographs of computer screens that displayed operational orders of military training exercises” and “five photographs of diagrams and blueprints outlining the electrical system” of radar systems at a U.S. military base in Okinawa. Both men were instructed to “destroy evidence regarding the nature of their relationship and their activities” and received regular payments from Conspirator A totaling approximately $14,866.76 (for Zhao) and at least $15,000 (for Wei) between November 2021 and March 2023. | DOJ |
| John C. Fry | 2018 | Trump | In May 2018, John Fry, an IRS investigative analyst, unlawfully accessed confidential Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) related to Michael Cohen and his company from a government database. Within minutes of accessing these SARS, Fry admitted to immediately using his personal cell phone to call attorney Michael Avenatti multiple times, verbally sharing the sensitive SAR information he had up on his computer during these calls. Additionally, he took screenshots of the confidential SARs and transmitted them to Avenatti using his personal email account. Fry further acknowledged conducting unauthorized searches of the FinCEN database and immediately calling Avenatti again from his personal cell phone to relay that additional confidential information verbally, despite having no official reason to disclose these records. Fry was discovered to have conducted additional WhatsApp exchanges and conversations with a second reporter negotiating further leaks in relation to the publications on Cohen’s SARs. | DOJ |
| Omarosa Manigault Newman [Covert Recording of Whitehouse Situation Room Leak] | 2018 | Trump | In 2017, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House adviser under President Trump, secretly recorded her firing by Chief of Staff John Kelly in the Situation Room—a highly secured SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) where electronic devices are strictly prohibited. She later released this audio during an interview on “Meet the Press.” Anonymous sources say Newman would often press record before a meeting in the situation room, and hide the device in her dress or purse. At the time of Newman’s leak, the former senior director of cybersecurity for the National Security Council, Ari Schwartz, claimed that the White House relied primarily on an honor system for device security, with staff instructing visitors to leave phones in locked cabinets outside but without strong formal screening processes or even metal detectors to ensure compliance. | Next Gov |
| Natalie Mayflower Edwards [Targeted Leak of Confidential Information Against Trump Officials] | 2017-2018 | Trump | Treasury official photographed numerous emails and confidential financial reports (SARs) on their personal phone and unlawfully disclosed to journalist via an encrypted messaging application. These leaks ocurred regularly over the course of a year, and pertained to the Russian Embassy and Trump officials, particularly, Paul Manafort and his associates. The unlawfully transmitted confidential information the journalist received resulted in 12 seperate Buzzfeed articles on this information. Edwards pleaded guilty and was sentenced to Federal prison in New York for unlawful disclosure of confidential government reports. From DOJ’s Press Release on Edwards’ Sentencing: Beginning in approximately October 2017, and lasting until her arrest in October 2018, EDWARDS agreed to and did unlawfully disclose numerous SARs to a reporter (“Reporter-1”), the substance of which were published over the course of approximately 12 articles by a news organization for which Reporter-1 worked. The illegally disclosed SARs pertained to, among other things, Paul Manafort, Richard Gates, the Russian Embassy, Maria Butina, and Prevezon Alexander. EDWARDS had access to each of the pertinent SARs and saved them—along with thousands of other files containing sensitive government information—to a flash drive provided to her by FinCEN. She transmitted the SARs to Reporter-1 by means that included taking photographs or images of them and texting the photographs or images to Reporter-1 over an encrypted application. In addition to disseminating SARs to Reporter-1, EDWARDS sent or described to Reporter-1 internal FinCEN emails or correspondence appearing to relate to SARs or other information protected by the BSA, and FinCEN non-public memoranda, including Investigative Memos and Intelligence Assessments published by the FinCEN Intelligence Division, which contained confidential personal information, business information, and/or security threat assessments. | DOJ |
| Kevin Mallory [Espionage for Foreign Chinese Intelligence] | 2017 | Trump | Kevin Patrick Mallory, 62, a former U.S. intelligence officer, was convicted of espionage and sentenced to 20 years for conspiring to transmit national defense information to Chinese intelligence. Mallory used a specialized covert communications device (a Samsung Galaxy smartphone) given to him by Michael Yang, whom Mallory assessed to be a Chinese Intelligence Officer, during a trip to Shanghai in April 2017. According to Mallory’s statements to FBI, the device was specifically designed for private communications with Yang, featuring both normal and secure messaging modes that were supposedly designed to delete message history. Mallory told agents he had been “trained to use it specifically for private communications.” FBI analysis of the phone revealed Mallory transmitted classified documents through this specialized communications channel, and surveillance footage showed him scanning Secret and Top Secret documents onto a micro SD card designed for mobile phones at a FedEx store, which agents later found concealed in Mallory’s home, during a search. | Washington Post |