By Aaron Miller–
A former US army major and his wife, an anesthesiologist, have been criminally charged for allegedly plotting to leak highly sensitive healthcare data about military patients to Russia, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday.
The indictment alleges that the plot started after Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine.
Major Jamie Lee Henry(pictured) and anaesthesiologist Anna Gabrielian were named in a federal indictment which was unsealed on Thursday in US District Court in Baltimore, CBS News reported.
The pair, who both speak English and Russian, were reportedly charged with conspiracy and the wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information
Henry was reported in BuzzFeedNews to be the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as a transgender.
Mr Henry worked as an internist at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where they had secret security clearance, Ms Gabrielian is still currently on staff at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
The indictment accuses the couple of giving the purported embassy worker that information to demonstrate their level of access to such material about “U.S. personnel,” and to show “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.”
The indictment alleges that the plot started earlier this year, after the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, ordered the invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors allege that the pair wanted to try to help the Russian government by providing them with data to help the Putin regime “gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the US government and military”.
Jamie Lee Henry (left) and Anna Gabrelian (right) U.S Army/Linkedin
Gabrielian told the agent that she had reached out to the Russian Embassy by email and phone, offering Russia assistance from both her and her spouse, Henry, the indictment says.
She also told the agent that although Henry knew she was reaching out to the Russian Embassy on both their behalf, she did not mention Henry’s name in her interactions with the Russian Embassy, and so Henry could claim lack of awareness.
The pair were sneered by an FBI undercover agent acting as a Russian official, the indictment says. Gabrielian told the undercover agent at a hotel in Baltimore that: “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 says.
During the covert meeting, she volunteered to bring her husband into the scheme, claiming h he had information about prior military training the US provided to Ukraine, among other things.
The indictment accuses the couple of giving the purported embassy worker that information to demonstrate their level of access to such material about “U.S. personnel,” and to show “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.”
That complaint charges the couple with conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.
Commitment
At another meeting later that day, Henry told the agent he too was committed to Russia and claimed he had even contemplated volunteering to join the Russian army.
“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,” he allegedly told the agent.
The agent urged them to read a book called Inside the Aquarium: The Making of a Top Soviet Spy, telling the pair it would help them understand what they were about to do.
“It’s the mentality of sacrificing everything … and loyalty in you from day one,” the agent said. “That’s not something you walked away from.”
Reservations
Apparently, Henry had some reservations about providing healthcare data, saying it would violate the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the indictment says, but his wife had no hesitations.
In a 24 August meeting, she told the undercover agent her husband was a “coward” to be concerned about violating HIPAA but she violated the law “all the time” and would see to it they could provide Russia with access to medical records from Fort Bragg patients.
By the end of the month, she had handed over information on current and former military officials and their spouses, the indictment says.
Gabrielian told the agent that she had reached out to the Russian Embassy by email and phone, offering Russia assistance from both her and her spouse, Henry, the indictment says.