By. Scott Jackson
08/07/2025
On Wednesday August 6th, the FBI reported the arrest of Spc. Taylor Adam Lee, an American soldier who is accused of allegedly trying to steal and share classified information with Russia.
Taylor Adam Lee is a 22 year old, active member of the US Army, most recently stationed at Fort Bliss In Texas as a tanker with the 1st Armored Division. According to prosecutors and the military he was arrested on Wednesday and charged under the Espionage Act with attempted transmission of national defense information to a foreign adversary. Additionally, he was charged under the Arms Export Control Act. The government has requested that Lee be held without bond.
According to the US Justice Department, Lee “transmitted export-controlled technical information on the M1A2 Abrams Tank online and offered assistance to the Russian Federation.” He was attempting to trade the information he possessed on the Abrams to get citizenship in the Russian Federation. It’s unclear how it was revealed to investigators that Lee was looking to trade US secrets on its tanks to Russia.
Writing earlier this year Lee said online that “the USA is not happy with me for trying to expose their weaknesses,” and, “At this point I’d even volunteer to assist the Russian federation when I’m there in any way.” (CBS News)
During a meeting in July Spc. Lee met with somebody who he believed was a representative of the Russian federations intelligence services. At this meeting he handed over an SD card with technical data and other information regarding the Abrams Main Battle Tank. A discussion took place where Lee offered to give a physical piece of tech from the tank to the Russian “agent”.
After the meeting Lee messaged the agent “Mission accomplished.”
He was later arrested by the FBI’s El Paso field office.
Lee at the time held a Top-Secret security clearance. This would have given him access to sensitive information on many of the US military’s systems.
GCR has reached out to the US Army and will update if a response is received.
The adversaries of the US regularly attempt to get active duty military members to share secrets, the widespread use of the internet has increased the risk of this happening greatly. In 2024 US officials warned that there was a large uptick in foreign spies targeting American’s through social media.
Update
As of this morning, I received back a response from the army as well as a statement from the first armored division. No new information but it helped me fill some things in
Global Conflict Reporting 
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