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The wife of the U.S. Army’s first transgender officer berated him as a ‘coward’ for having qualms about giving senior officers’ medical files to the Russian government. The couple is accused of trying to deliver the documents as part of an effort to assist Russia in connection with the conflict in Ukraine.
Major Jamie Lee Henry, 39, and Johns Hopkins Dr. Anna Gabrielian, 36, were charged with conspiring to steal medical records from North Carolina‘s Fort Bragg, according to the Department of Justice.
Fort Bragg is home to a number of elite military units, including the Army’s Green Berets and Delta Force, and Joint Special Operations Command.
Gabrielian is an anesthesiologist in Baltimore, Maryland. Henry is U.S. Army major who held a Secret-level security clearance, and is Gabrielian’s husband and a doctor.
Gabrielian’s profile on the Johns Hopkins website shows that she speaks Russian, and earned her medical degree at the University of Pittsburg School of Medicine in 2012. She married Henry in 2015, the same year the major declared himself to be transgender.
During the time of the alleged conspiracy, Henry worked as a staff internist stationed at Fort Bragg.
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 indictment alleges that beginning on Aug. 17, 2022, Gabrielian and Henry conspired to give health information on patients to an individual they believed to be working for the Russian government.
Gabrielian and Henry met with an individual they believed to be associated with the Russian government, but who was, in fact, a Federal Bureau of Investigation Undercover Agent (“agent”). The couple discussed with the agent the ways in which they could help the Russian government.
Gabrielian told the agent that she had previously reached out to the Russian embassy by email and phone, offering assistance from herself and her husband.
Gabrielian told the agent that, although Henry knew of Gabrielian’s interaction with the Russian Embassy, she never mentioned Henry’s name to the Russian Embassy. Gabrielian wanted to make sure Henry could deny any knowledge of her actions.
On Aug. 17, 2022, Gabrielian met with the agent at a hotel in Baltimore. During that meeting, Gabrielian told the agent she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia to provide any assistance she could to Russia, even if it meant being fired or going to jail. Gabrielian proposed potential cover stories for meeting the agent and stressed the need for “plausible deniability” in the event she was confronted by American authorities.
Gabrielian also told the agent that, as a military officer, Henry was currently a more important source for Russia than she was, because he had more helpful information, including how the United States military establishes an army hospital in war conditions and information about training the United States military gave to Ukrainian military personnel.
At about 8:10 p.m. that evening, the indictment alleges that Gabrielian and Henry met with the agent in the agent’s hotel room. During the meeting, Henry explained to the agent he was committed to assisting Russia and had looked into volunteering to join the Russian Army after the conflict in Ukraine began, but Russia wanted people with “combat experience” and he did not have any.
Henry further stated, “the way I am viewing what is going on in Ukraine now, is that the United States is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”
Henry and Gabrielian allegedly offered to provide the agent with private medical records from the United States Army in order to help the Russian government.
During the same meeting, Gabrielian demanded that if she were put at significant risk of arrest, she wanted her and Henry’s children to “have a nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end up in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.”
Henry also indicated that he was concerned about passing a background check for his security clearance, telling the agent, “I don’t want to know your name . . . because I want plausible deniability too. In a security clearance situation they want to know names and people and all this stuff.”
As detailed in the indictment, a few days later, Gabrielian and the agent again met at the hotel in Baltimore to discuss providing Army medical records to the agent. Gabrielian told the agent that Henry was concerned about violating HIPAA, but Gabrielian had no such concerns. Gabrielian stated that she would check with Henry about providing medical records from Fort Bragg patients and get back in touch.
The next day, Gabrielian sent a text to the agent, using coded language, to advise that Henry would provide Army medical records to the agent. On Aug. 31, 2022, Gabrielian and Henry allegedly met the agent at a hotel room in Gaithersburg, Maryland. According to the indictment, Gabrielian provided the agent with medical records related to two individuals, including the spouse of an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, whom Gabrielian pointed out had a medical condition Russia could “exploit.”
Henry also allegedly provided IIHI related to five individuals who were military veterans or related to military veterans.
If convicted, the defendants 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
