Ex-airman sentenced to 45 months for leaking drone info

Eric Tucker/AP

Updated: Jul 27, 2021 / 12:28 PM CDT

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A former Air Force intelligence analyst was sentenced to 45 months in prison on Tuesday for leaking top secret information about the U.S. government’s drone strike program to a journalist.

Daniel Hale of Nashville, Tennessee, has said he was motivated by guilt when he disclosed to an investigative reporter details of a military drone program that he believed was indiscriminately killing civilians in Afghanistan far from the battlefield.

In issuing the sentence, U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady cited the need to deter others from disclosing government secrets and told Hale that he had other options besides sharing classified information with a reporter.