Ex-Intel Boss Stole Top Secret Docs for at Least a DECADE, Air Force Says

A retired U.S. Air Force intelligence officer who admitted earlier this year to keeping hundreds of highly classified government documents at his Florida home had been pilfering confidential material for at least 10 years, according to military records reviewed by The Daily Beast.

Long before Lt. Col. Robert Birchum pleaded guilty in federal court to one felony count of unlawful retention of national defense information, he received a searing USAF letter of reprimand describing the conduct for which he would later be charged as “disgraceful,” “inexcusable,” “irresponsible,” and “despicable.”

The letter, which is dated Jan. 5, 2018 and signed by Brig. Gen. Darren V. James, provides new insight into the details of Birchum’s alarming hoard, dating back to a posting the Eagle Pass, Texas native assumed just two years after joining the service. The documents Birchum “wrongfully took” were not only from the Department of Defense, but from “other agencies in the Intelligence Community (IC) as well,” the letter states.

Read more at The Daily Beast.