Overview
- Lee was arrested on August 6 in El Paso and charged under the Espionage Act and Arms Export Control Act for attempting to transmit classified tank information and hardware.
- Prosecutors allege that in June 2025 he posted export-controlled schematics of the M1A2 Abrams online and offered his services to Russia in exchange for citizenship.
- In July 2025, Lee handed over an SD card of classified Abrams documents to an individual he believed represented the Russian government and delivered a hardware component to a local storage unit.
- As a 22-year-old active-duty soldier at Fort Bliss, Lee held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance at the Army’s key armored training installation.
- He remains detained without bond as DOJ attorneys in the Western District of Texas pursue prosecution with support from the FBI’s Washington and El Paso field offices and Army Counterintelligence Command.