DOJ Accuses CIA Contractor Of Leaking To Anti-Imperialist Substack

The United States Justice Department charged a systems developer for a CIA contractor with violating the Espionage Act. He allegedly shared CIA documents on Israel and the war against Iran with a journalist. 

On October 23, Ian Brinksman was arrested after the FBI searched his residence. He was charged with “unlawfully transmitting national defense information.” The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

According to an FBI affidavit in support of the criminal complaint [PDF], Brinksman accessed at least five reports in a “classified” CIA database. He then shared details with journalist Aida Chavez, who covered the contents at her Substack, Capital & Empire. 

The articles mentioned in the affidavit were published between March 11 and October 5. (One article was co-published with Drop Site News.) 

Defending Rights and Dissent, a civil liberties organization known for advocating for Espionage Act reform, commented, “An indictment is an unproven allegation made by the government. Ian Brinksman, like all criminal defendants, is entitled to a presumption of innocence.”

“What is alleged in the indictment is that Brinksman shared information of great public interest with a journalist noted for her critical reporting on U.S. foreign policy. It is an abuse of the Espionage Act and an attack on the First Amendment to bring these charges.”

The organization added, “Unfortunately, this is all too common and why we will continue to demand reform of the Espionage Act so it can no longer threaten press freedom.”

Chavez used the information allegedly provided by Brinksman to report on the “risk of civil war or state collapse” in Israel, the Israeli government’s “long-term strategy to permanently enmesh Israel within America’s military, intelligence, and defense establishment, and pressure from the Israeli government to assassinate Iran’s lead negotiator and launch strikes on Iran’s oil infrastructure.  

Capital & Empire is an anti-imperialist publication. The newsletter, according to Chavez, "investigates the material interests behind American imperialism – who benefits from it, how it is sustained, and what it costs working people around the world.” Of course, the CIA and President Donald Trump’s administration would want to retaliate and jail any source providing information to Chavez.

The FBI alleges that Brinksman had a routine. He accessed the reports and then left the secure compartmented information facility, or SCIF, where he worked to retrieve his phone from his car. He called Chavez with notes from the reports and then he returned to his workplace shortly after.  

A notebook on Brinksman’s desk was reviewed by “law enforcement” on October 10. “The corners of several pages were torn out of the notebook. I know based on my training and experience, that people often take notes to be able to pass along full verbatim or near verbatim quoted information,” FBI Special Agent John W. Althen declared. 

Additionally, according to the affidavit, the FBI identified the number of users who had accessed the relevant CIA reports and then identified the individuals who had accessed Chavez’s Substack. Six individuals visited Capital & Empire, but only Brinksman allegedly viewed the five reports and the five articles that contained information from the reports. 

It is unclear if Chavez was targeted with surveillance or a legal order. The FBI did obtain “call records” that showed “more than 800 calls or attempted calls” between Brinksman and Chavez in 2026. Investigators also accessed Brinksman’s Google account and found records where Chavez had shared Google documents with Brinksman for editing. 

One email from Brinksman’s Gmail account allegedly told a friend, “The lady I’ve been seeing is a journalist and recently went independent. So I’ve been helping her get that off the ground. Her venture focuses on foreign policy. So I’m getting a surprising amount of enrichment/fulfilment [sic] from working on that.” 

The FBI determined that the “lady” and the “journalist” was Chavez, who reported on information that Brinksman allegedly shared with her. 

In the “probable cause” section of the affidavit, Althen called attention to a fundraising post that Chavez published for Capital & Empire because it mentioned that “over the past year” she had “published reporting based on classified CIA assessments that I believe the public deserves to know about.” Althen also highlighted a social media comment where Chavez shared, “I also accept leaks.” 

Based on the alleged evidence, the FBI had plenty to identify Brinksman without Chavez suggesting that the CIA assessments she received were leaked. The inclusion of the fundraising post in the affidavit seems like pure intimidation to discourage a journalist from further communications with sources at intelligence agencies. 

Chavez previously worked as a Washington correspondent for the Nation and a congressional reporter for the Intercept. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Hill, Zeteo, and Responsible Statecraft. She also was the communications director and policy adviser for the anti-war advocacy group Just Foreign Policy.

Less about Brinksman's background is confirmed, but we do know Brinksman is 42 years old. He’s a millennial like NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, NSA whistleblower Reality Winner, and IRS whistleblower Charles Littlejohn.

Potentially, like those truth-tellers, Brinksman was moved to play a role in informing the public about the U.S. government sowing catastrophe in the world.