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Ex-Air Force intel officer had 'hundreds' of classified docs, fed say
A former Air Force intelligence officer has agreed to plea guilty after prosecutors said he illegally kept hundreds of highly classified documents at his Florida home.
Retired Air Force intelligence officer had 'hundreds' of classified documents in his Florida home including Top Secret briefs on the NSA's capabilities, feds say
- Robert Birchum, 54, agreed to plea guilty in plea deal unsealed on Friday
- He is a former Air Force intelligence officer who worked in special operations
- Prosecutors say he had hundreds of classified documents at his Florida home
- Birchum is set to enter his guilty plea on February 21 and faces 10 years in prison
PUBLISHED: 17:31 EST, 30 January 2023 | UPDATED: 17:31 EST, 30 January 2023
A former Air Force intelligence officer has agreed to plead guilty after prosecutors said he illegally kept hundreds of highly classified documents at his Florida home.
Robert Birchum, 54, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of unlawful retention of national defense information, and faces up to 10 years in prison, according to a plea deal unsealed on Friday.
The agreement says Birchum served as an Air Force officer from May 1986 to July 2018, when he retired at the rank of lieutenant colonel after holding a variety of high-level roles, including chief of combat intelligence for an unnamed Air Force group.
Birchum's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Monday, and declined to comment when reached by the Daily Beast, which first reported the plea deal.
The plea agreement, signed in August but newly unsealed, comes as President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump, and his VP Mike Pence all face questions about classified documents found in their private residences.
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Robert Birchum, 54, agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of willful retention of national defense information, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors say that in January 2017, Air Force investigators received a tip that Birchum was storing classified information on a thumb drive at his private residence in Tampa.
Following a search of the home, investigators recovered a drive containing 135 files with classification markings, including 31 that were marked as 'Top Secret', according to the court filing.
Regulations governing classified information define 'Top Secret' as that information that, where it to be disclosed without authorization, could case 'exceptionally grave damage' to the national security.
Birchum's plea deal was signed in August, but only unsealed on Friday. He is due to appear in court on February 21
It's unclear why Birchum had the documents at his home, or what he planned to do with them.
But the filing notes that as an experience Air Force intelligence officer, Birchum had entered into 'various agreements with the United States regarding the protection and proper handling of classified information.'
Birchum's roles in the military included assignments working with classified intelligence information at the Joint Special Operations Command ('JSOC'), Special Operations Command ('SOCOM'), and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Due to his duties, he held a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), which must be held in a secure facility on government premises, known as a 'SCIF'.
For obvious reasons, the court filing does not detail the classified information found in Birchum's home.
However, it notes that he routinely had access to information including 'Department of Defense locations throughout the world, detailed explanations of the Air Force's capabilities and vulnerabilities' and the methods used for gathering intelligence.
Birchum is due to appear in court on February 21 to enter his guilty plea.
China and Russia sitting back cracking up at these dumb fucks
