A US serviceman has been arrested on suspicion of attempting to pass confidential data about the M1A2 Abrams main battle tank to Russia, the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
Taylor Adam Lee, 22, of El Paso, Texas, who had top-secret clearance, allegedly posted technical information about the M1A2 Abrams tank online in June 2025 and offered voluntary assistance to Russia, according to court documents.
The case materials quote a military officer as saying that "the US is unhappy with me for trying to expose their weaknesses."
In July, Lee allegedly handed over an SD card containing sensitive data about M1A2 Abrams, other armored vehicles, and combat operations to a person he believed was a representative of the Russian government. During the meeting, the service member claimed that the information on the card was confidential and likely secret.
During the meeting, Lee also discussed providing the Russian government with some equipment that was inside the tank. He then delivered what appeared to be the equipment to a warehouse in El Paso. He then sent a message to a person he believed to be a representative of the Russian government saying, "Mission accomplished."
The serviceman was arrested on charges of attempting to transmit national defense information to a foreign adversary and attempting to export controlled technical data without a license.
Recall that another high-profile case happened to a US military man named Jack Teixeira. He was accused of sharing secret Pentagon documents on a Discord server in late 2022.
In the spring of 2024, he pleaded guilty in the document leak case, and in the fall, a Boston court sentenced the serviceman to 15 years in prison.