Senator Collins Questions National Guard Chief on Classified Information Leak by Massachusetts Airman

Hearing

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General Hokanson, I want to follow up on the Chairman's questions to you about the Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has been accused of leaking classified documents. What was most disturbing to me was when I learned, through some of the court filings, that there was an Air Force memorandum that indicated that he had been repeatedly warned. So, this was not a deviation that came out of the blue. But in fact, he had been reprimanded, and he had been instructed to, quote, "stop any deep dives into classified intelligence information and focus on his job." He, quote, "had been observed taking notes on classified intelligence materials."

These reports are very concerning because it appears that this serious breach might have been prevented or stopped much sooner if the Airman's Guard unit had taken greater action to restrict his access to classified information.

My question is, what is the standard practice when someone has been reprimanded for misuse of classified information and then does it again? That to me just shouldn't require an IG report. That should be on the books now, I would think.

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