Ex-Fort Bragg Contractor Charged With Posting Classified Ops Footage

A former government contractor who worked security at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command facility at Fort Bragg is facing federal charges after prosecutors say he photographed classified military operations footage and posted it on social media, according to a Justice Department release issued Friday.

James Thomas Ashbacher, 37, of Spring Lake, North Carolina, was arrested by the FBI on Tuesday, the Justice Department said. An indictment unsealed the same day charges him with unlawfully transmitting and retaining national defense information and with theft of government property, according to the department.

Fort Bragg contractor posted classified military photos on social media, feds say https://t.co/EbQoeSoBBE

— The Charlotte Observer (@theobserver) October 30, 2026

What prosecutors allege

According to the Justice Department, Ashbacher began working in or about 2021 for a private company that provided security and emergency management services at the Army Special Operations Command facility. The department said he held a Top Secret security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information access to do that job. The Raleigh News & Observer, citing the indictment, reported that his employment there lasted through March 2024.

The indictment alleges that Ashbacher photographed and removed, without authorization, videos and photographs showing classified military operations and sent the material to a social media site, the Justice Department said. According to the department, other users later re-posted the material on a second social media site. The News & Observer reported that the indictment describes the images as classified at the “secret” level.

Prosecutors say Ashbacher then asked a social media user in a private message to remove some of the material, telling that person he was “trying to do some damage control,” according to the Justice Department release. The News & Observer reported that the indictment quotes a longer version of the message in which he asked the user to “take ’em down, tuck them away, and repost them in a year or two when my contract ends lol.”

Search turned up more material and missing gear

A search of Ashbacher’s home found a classified award write-up containing additional national defense information, the Justice Department said. Investigators also recovered a night vision goggle system specific to a unit within Army Special Operations Command that had been reported missing, according to the department.

The FBI’s Charlotte Field Office is investigating the case with substantial help from the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, the Justice Department said. The department said the case is being prosecuted by a trial attorney from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. WBTV and The Charlotte Observer also reported the arrest and charges on Friday, citing the Justice Department.

Why it matters

Army Special Operations Command oversees some of the most sensitive missions the U.S. military carries out, and footage of classified operations can expose tactics, equipment and the identities of the people who carry them out.

Daily Beltway’s view is simple: the men and women who run these missions are owed a security system that treats their secrets seriously, and anyone trusted with a clearance who treats classified footage like social media content should face the full weight of the law if a jury finds the charges proven.

As the Justice Department noted in its release, an indictment is merely an allegation, and Ashbacher is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

Sources

• U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs
• The News & Observer
• WBTV
• The Charlotte Observer
• The Charlotte Observer on X

Reporting by Daily Beltway.