A former U.S. Navy submarine warfare specialist has been arrested and charged with trying to give classified information about how to track U.S. submarines to people he thought were representatives of the Russian Federation - but who were actually FBI undercover agents, according to federal authorities.A picture of the goofball, identifying him as a former CT, along with a copy of the indictment is here.
Robert Patrick Hoffman II of Virginia Beach, Virginia, was arrested Thursday morning on an attempted espionage charge...
...According to the indictment, on October 21 Hoffman tried to hand over national defense information to people he thought were representatives of the Russian government, including classified information "that revealed and pertained to methods to track U.S. submarines, including the technology and procedures required."...
...Hoffman, 39, is described as a 20-year veteran of the U.S. Navy who was trained in cryptology and reached the rank of petty officer first class. He retired from active duty in November 2011. According to his biography released by the military, he served as a submarine warfare specialist.
A lot of times in treason cases like this, the prosecutors end up having to bargain away the death penalty in order to get the traitor's help in determining what he had previously given to the foreign country. In this case, since there's no evidence so far that the doofus was ever successful in passing along his information, prosecutors are under no such impediment. Also, since the guy's retired, he's still subject to the UCMJ. I say just run the case through a court martial and fast-track his appeals so we can carry out the sentence expeditiously -- despite the CNN article saying the maximum penalty is life, I'm sure the military could find a UCMJ article (like Article 106a) that carries the death penalty. Does the military still use firing squads?
