RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — An Army veteran has been charged with sharing classified information about an elite commando unit with a journalist, which one official said put the country, members of the U.S. military, and the nation’s allies at risk.
Courtney Williams, 40, of Wagram, North Carolina, is accused of violating federal law and multiple nondisclosure agreements by sharing details of her work with a 'special military unit' at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
'Anyone divulging information they vowed to protect to a reporter for publication is reckless, self-serving, and damages our nation’s security,' Reid Davis, the FBI special agent in charge in North Carolina, expressed in a U.S. Justice Department news release.
Williams 'swore an oath to safeguard our nation’s secrets as an employee supporting a Special Military Unit of the Army, but she allegedly betrayed that oath by sharing classified information with a media outlet and putting our nation, our warfighters, and our allies at risk,' Roman Rozhavsky, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division noted.
She specifically faced charges under the Espionage Act during her appearance at Raleigh federal court on Wednesday, where details of the case were unsealed following initial filings made late last week. Following the court's decision, she was ordered to be held by the U.S. Marshals Service pending upcoming hearings.
Although the reporter and unit are not named in court filings, the information aligns with a book concerning the Army’s Delta Force written by Seth Harp.
Williams was mentioned in a 2025 Politico article titled: 'My Life Became a Living Hell: One Woman’s Career in Delta Force, the Army’s Most Elite Unit.' This coincided with the release of Harp’s book, 'The Fort Bragg Cartel,' which alleges issues of sexual harassment and discrimination.
In Harp's statement posted by WRAL-TV, he referred to Williams as 'a brave whistleblower and truth-teller.'
According to the FBI, Williams engaged in numerous communications with an unnamed journalist from 2022 to 2025, including over 10 hours of calls and 180 messages.
The ongoing investigations have already identified multiple documents that Williams intended to share, raising serious concerns about the potential breach of national security protocols.
