Top Secret to Substack: CIA Contractor Accused of Feeding His Girlfriend’s Scoops

At 11:26 a.m. on May 12, Ian Brinksman opened a Top Secret report, according to the FBI. He left the secure facility at 12:57 p.m. and called a Substack publisher ten minutes later. An article containing similar information appeared the next day. The FBI’s affidavit describes five reports and five articles, using database records, badge movements and phone calls to reconstruct the alleged leaks.

The FBI arrested Brinksman, a 42-year-old CIA contractor, on October 23 after searching his Washington residence. CIA Director John Ratcliffe said his agency referred the suspected disclosures to investigators. Prosecutors allege Brinksman supplied national defense information to a romantic partner who intended to publish it.

Brinksman held Top Secret clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information. He had worked for the government agency from 2020, then moved to a systems-integration contractor in 2022, according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors allege he reached beyond his duties to obtain defense information for a romantic partner who intended to publish it.

Phones were barred inside his workplace. The agent suggests Brinksman’s trips outside gave him opportunities to call. The contents of those conversations remain an inference in that account. His agency told investigators that all five reports fell outside the scope of his work.

The publication was Capital & Empire, Reuters reported, identifying its author as journalist Aída Chávez by matching language quoted in the affidavit to her published writing. The court document calls the recipient Individual 1. Brinksman’s public defender declined Reuters’ request for comment; Chávez had not immediately responded.

Brinksman faces a charge of unlawfully transmitting national defense information. The allegations have yet to be tested at trial, and he is presumed innocent.