First Known Out Trans Army Officer Accused of Conspiring With Russia
An Army doctor said to be the first active-duty officer to come out as transgender has been indicted on a charge of providing confidential U.S. government information to Russia to assist that nation in its war against Ukraine.
Jamie Lee Henry, 39, and their wife, Anna Gabrielian, 36, were charged Thursday with conspiracy and the disclosure of individually identifiable health information, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Maryland. Both live in Rockville, Md. The charges came from a federal grand jury.
Henry, a major in the U.S. Army, came out as a trans woman in an interview with BuzzFeed News in 2015. Although that was a year before the Obama administration lifted the ban on out trans service members, Henry received permission to change their name and pronouns. However, the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office uses male pronouns. A spokesperson told CNBC that Henry had most recently used male pronouns, including in a court appearance last week, and an attorney for Henry declined comment to the channel.
During the time of the alleged conspiracy, Henry worked as a staff internist stationed at Fort Bragg, the home of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, headquarters of the United States Army Special Operations Command, and the Womack Army Medical Center. Henry held a secret-level security clearance. Gabrielian worked as an anesthesiologist at Medical Institution 1 in Baltimore.
Henry and Gabrielian believed they were providing information to a Russian agent, but the person they were dealing with was actually an undercover FBI agent. “According to the eight-count indictment, Gabrielian and Henry conspired to cause harm to the United States by providing confidential health information of Americans associated with the United States government and military to Russia,” the press release states. “Specifically, the indictment alleges that beginning on August 17, 2022, Gabrielian and Henry conspired to provide IIHI [individually identifiable health information] related to patients at Medical Institution 1 and at Fort Bragg to an individual they believed to be working for the Russian government in order to demonstrate the level of Gabrielian’s and Henry’s access to IIHI of Americans; their willingness to provide IIHI to the Russian government; and the potential for the Russian government to gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the United States government and military in order to exploit this information.”
If convicted, Henry and Gabrielian each face a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison for the conspiracy and a maximum of 10 years in federal prison for each count of disclosing individually identifiable health information.
