The Department of Justice (DOJ) this week charged an Army doctor and his wife, an anesthesiologist, with conspiring to hand over military documents to Russia.
Anna Gabrielian, 36, and Jamie Lee Henry, 39, both of Rockville, Md., were indicted on Wednesday, accused of a conspiracy to provide the personal medical records of individuals to Russia in an effort to assist the nation in its war against Ukraine, the DOJ said in a Thursday release unsealing the charges.
Both defendants are making appearances on Thursday before a judge at the U.S. District Court in Baltimore for initial court hearings.
Gabrielian is listed as an anesthesiologist at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, while Henry was an Army doctor and staff intern at Fort Bragg, N.C., home of the military hospital Womack Army Medical Center.
According to the DOJ, an undercover FBI agent posing as an official from the Russian Embassy met with Gabrielian on Aug. 17 after the anesthesiologist had contacted the embassy to offer assistance to Russia after the war in Ukraine broke out in late February.
“During that meeting, Gabrielian told the [undercover agent] 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 DOJ stated in the release.
She then offered the assistance of Henry because her husband knew the ins and outs of how the U.S. military sets up a military hospital in war conditions, as well as information on the U.S.-trained Ukrainian troops, according to the DOJ.
Gabrielian and Henry met the night of Aug. 17 with the undercover agent in the agent’s hotel room, where Henry said he wished to help Russia and had even looked into joining the Russian army, the DOJ alleged.
“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,” Henry allegedly said at the meeting, according to the DOJ.
The DOJ alleges that Gabrielian communicated with the agent for the rest of the month until Aug. 31, when she provided medical information on two people, including the spouse of an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, whom she said Russia could “exploit.”
Henry allegedly provided information on five people who were military veterans or related to military veterans, including a Department of Defense employee.
The couple was indicted on eight counts, including the conspiracy charge and the wrongful disclosure of personal health information.
If convicted of the charges, they both face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for the conspiracy charge and up to 10 years in prison for each count of wrongful disclosure.