John Murray Rowe Jr., 63, of South Dakota has been indicted by federal prosecutors for attempting to communicate national defense information to aid a foreign government, for his efforts to communicate classified information to FBI operatives posing as Russian agents, the Associated Press reports.
In emails, Rowe sent designs for military fighters to the operatives who he thought were Russian government officials. “If I can’t get a job here then I’ll go work for the other team,” he wrote according to court documents.
Rowe had been fired in March 2018 from an unnamed defense contractor for security violations and because he had been identified as a potential insider threat to company security. At one point, he attempted to smuggle a thumb drive into a secure area of his workplace, and he asked a coworker if someone could hold a US and a Russian security clearance simultaneously.
Because of his questionable actions, he was approached by an FBI agent posing as a Russian agent. Rowe quickly started emailing the man information on electronic countermeasures on US fighter jets. The emails, however, were going to a different FBI operator who kept the conversation going for eight months.