Retired Air Force officer set to plead guilty to storing classified information at his Florida home

A retired Flying force lieutenant colonel who saved files with categorized info at his Florida house is set to plead guilty in February to one count of illegal retention of nationwide defense info, according to court files.

The accused, Robert Birchum, served in the Air Force for more than thirty years and formerly held supersecret clearance. According to his plea contract, he saved numerous files which contained info significant as supersecret, secret or private categorized beyond licensed places.

In 2017, detectives discovered a thumb drive, 2 disk drives and paper files consisting of categorized info in Birchum’s ownership, consisting of at his house, court files state. 2 of the files on the thumb drive at Birchum’s house consisted of info on the National Security Company’s “techniques of collection, and recognize targets’ vulnerabilities,” according to the plea.

CNN has actually connected to Birchum’s lawyer for remark.

A plea hearing is set for February 21 in a district court in Florida, and he deals with an optimum of ten years in jail.

The Daily Monster initially reported on the plea contract.

The case ends as Washington is involved in debate over the handling of categorized files by President Joe Biden, previous President Donald Trump and previous Vice President Mike Pence. 2 unique counsels are examining Biden and Trump, and the Justice Department is evaluating the Pence case.

While Birchum had supersecret clearance through his different positions in the Air Force, consisting of as an Intelligence Officer, “( t) he accused’s house was not an area licensed to save categorized info, and the accused referred to as much,” the plea contract states.

On a disk drive at his house, detectives discovered 10 files that had “info marked as Secret,” according to the contract, along with 48 paper files that likewise consisted of info significant as trick. On the thumb drive recuperated from his house, detectives state they discovered 135 files marked as consisting of categorized info.

Independently, in a short-term house overseas beyond a designated delicate compartmented info center (SCIF), detectives state they discovered another hard disk consisting of 117 files with classified nationwide defense info.

According to court filings, Birchum retired from the Flying force in 2018. A Flying force representative decreased to comment.