A U.S. Army significant physician and her doctor better half have actually been charged with a criminal plot to offer personal medical info associated to members of the U.S. military and federal government to the Russian federal government, court records reveal.
Prosecutors stated the couple, 39- year-oldMaj Jamie Lee Henry, and Johns Hopkins Hospital anesthesiologist Anna Gabrielian, 36, intended to assist Russia in its continuous war versusUkraine But the individual who wound up getting medical info from them ended up being an undercover FBI representative, not a Russian Embassy staff member as the couple had actually been led to think, district attorneys stated.
The couple was called in an eight-count federal indictment unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore, charging both of them with conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of separately recognizable health info.
Henry was a personnel internist who held a secret-level security clearance at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, the biggest military post in the U.S. The fort is the house of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, the head office of the Army’s Special Operations Command, and the Womack Army Medical Center.
Henry in 2015 was reported to be the very first recognized active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender. While she recognizes herself as a lady, the indictment consistently describes Henry by male pronouns.
Gabrielian speaks both English and Russian, according to the website of Johns Hopkins, which lies in Baltimore.
The indictment stated the couple, who reside in Rockville, Maryland, thought they would be offering medical info associated to clients at Fort Bragg and Johns Hopkins to an individual operating at the Russian Embassy in Washington.
In truth, that other individual was an undercover FBI representative. In mid-August, the representative approached Gabrielian and asked her about the help she had actually used to the Russian Embassy numerous months previously by means of phone and e-mail.
The indictment implicates the couple of supplying that representative with medical info associated to clients at Fort Bragg and Johns Hopkins to show their level of access to such info about “U.S. personnel,” and to reveal “the potential for the Russian government to gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the U.S. government and military, to exploit this information.”
Gabrielian consented to satisfy the representative in a Baltimore hotel space onAug 17, the indictment states.
Later that exact same day, she called the representative “to reaffirm” the couple “were committed to helping Russia,” the indictment declares.
During the conference, Gabrielian informed the FBI representative “she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail,” the indictment states.
The charging file states the couple presumably gone over with the representative the requirement for them “to maintain ‘plausible deniability’ regarding their interactions.”
“Gabrielian recommended a cover story for their interactions, and a prepare for Gabrielian and Henry’s kids [to] run away the U.S. rapidly if Gabrielian and Henry were informed to act in such a way that might expose their interactions and actions to the U.S. federal government,” the indictment states.
Gabrielian presumably informed the representative that Henry “was currently a more important source for Russia than she was, since Henry had more helpful information, including on how the U.S. military establishes an army hospital in war conditions, and about previous training the U.S. military provided to Ukrainian military personnel.”
When Gabrielian and Henry collectively met the representative at the hotel on the night ofAug 17, the indictment stated, “Henry discussed to the [undercover agent that they were] dedicated to helping Russia, and he had actually checked out offering to sign up with the Russian Army after the dispute in Ukraine started, however Russia desired individuals with ‘battle experience,’ and he did not have any.”
“Henry further stated: ‘the way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia,'” the charging file declares.
At the exact same conference, Henry stated Gabrielian had actually advised the book “Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy,” the indictment declared. That 1986 book by Viktor Suvorov explains the author’s training inside the then-Soviet Union’s military intelligence system.
Henry likewise presumably informed the undercover representative, “My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want. At that point. I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through,” according to the indictment.
“Gabrielian replied: ‘you’ll work through those ethical issues,'” the indictment declares.
Two weeks later on, throughout a conference with the representative in a hotel in Gaithersburg, Maryland, the couple provided the representative health info associated to numerous people, the indictment stated.
Gabrielian presumably provided the representative info associated to “the spouse of a person currently employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence” and “highlighted to the [agent] a medical concern shown in the records [of that person] that Russia might make use of,” the indictment stated. She likewise turned over records associated to “a veteran of the United States Air Force.”
