A former U.S. Marine who resides at Cabool was indicted for allegedly giving information that threatens national security.
Seth Chambers, 35, was indicted with two counts of willful transmission of national defense information, according to a March 13 U.S. Department of Justice press release.
He pleaded not guilty Friday during a court hearing at the federal courthouse in Springfield.
Chambers, a former Marine Corps. Intelligence Analyst, was employed as a civilian contractor and stationed in Erbil, Iraq, from November 2021 to January 2023, according to court documents. Chambers held a security clearance that allowed him to view different levels of classified material.
According to the news release, Chambers allegedly sent classified information to individuals who were not authorized to receive it on two separate occasions. The first occurred in 2022 when prosecutors say Chambers sent a white paper with classified U.S. government documents to an individual in Maryland. In 2023, Chambers allegedly sent excerpts from classified material to an individual believed to be in China.
The indictment was returned by a Springfield grand jury under seal and was made public Friday after the arrest and initial appearance of the defendant, according to the release.
If convicted, Chambers could be sentenced up to 10 years in federal prison on each count.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jim Kelleher and Trial Attorneys Nicolas Hunter and Sean O’Dowd of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, according to the release. It was investigated by the FBI Kansas City Field Office.