The FBI on Friday arrested a CIA contractor accused of passing classified intelligence to his romantic partner, a journalist who published at least five stories based on the material. Three of the stories directly concerned Israel, including a reported CIA assessment that warned of the risk of severe internal conflict in Israel.
Ian A. Brinksman, 42, of Washington, D.C., was arrested after a search of his home and charged with unlawfully transmitting national defense information, an Espionage Act offense that carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. He held a top-secret security clearance, first as an employee of a US government agency starting in 2020 and later as a systems integration developer for a contractor working for the same agency. CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that Brinksman provided services to the agency.
"As alleged, Brinksman reached far outside his own duties to obtain some of our Nation's most closely held secrets and handed them to a romantic partner he knew intended to publish them," Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said in a statement.
The FBI affidavit identifies the journalist only as "Individual 1." Ynet reported that documents it obtained show she is Aída Chávez, a former correspondent for The Nation and The Intercept who founded the independent Substack newsletter Capital & Empire. Reuters reported that a passage from a September fundraising appeal quoted in the affidavit appears in a piece Chávez published on September 28. Chávez has not been charged with any offense.
According to Ynet, the three Israel-related articles included a May 28 report claiming that Israeli officials privately urged the Trump administration to assassinate Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, a key figure in Iran's negotiations with Washington, and to resume strikes on Iran's oil infrastructure. A July 29 article described a US intelligence assessment on Israeli efforts to anchor its strategic relationship with the United States beyond the Trump administration, including through deeper military, intelligence and defense industry ties and discussion of a possible permanent US base in Israel.
The third article, published October 5 together with Drop Site News, described a reported CIA assessment titled "Fracture From Within," prepared in August by the agency's Red Cell, a unit tasked with challenging conventional assumptions and exploring alternative scenarios. According to the report, the assessment examined how Israel's political crisis, the dispute over Haredi military service, economic pressure and the toll of prolonged war could combine to produce severe internal conflict ahead of the October 27 election. Ynet noted that the document was a scenario analysis, not an official US intelligence prediction that civil war would occur.
The other two articles concerned Gulf states. One reported that Bahrain brought in Jordanian forces to help suppress protests over its role in the war with Iran, and another described divisions among Washington's Gulf allies over whether to continue strikes on Iran.
Investigators say they traced the leaks through badge records, database logs and phone records. According to the affidavit, Brinksman repeatedly accessed classified reports unrelated to his duties, left the secure facility where personal phones are banned, and contacted his partner, sometimes within minutes. In one instance, he allegedly accessed a classified document on October 1 and then spoke with her for 47 minutes and again for 37 minutes. The article on Israel's internal crisis was published four days later.
The FBI recorded more than 800 calls or attempted calls between the two during 2026. Investigators also found that Brinksman was among no more than six people who visited the newsletter from his workplace, and the only one who both accessed all five classified reports and viewed all five articles.
FBI Director Kash Patel vowed to pursue anyone who abuses access to government secrets. Ratcliffe said the arrest followed a CIA referral and warned that unauthorized disclosures can endanger intelligence sources, operations and personnel.
A federal public defender representing Brinksman declined to comment, according to Reuters. Chávez did not respond to Reuters' request for comment.
