Last Friday, 42-year-old Ian Brinksman was picked up by the feds for allegedly passing top secret national defense information to another individual. Though that individual wasn’t named by any reports, the internet quickly worked out that Individual 1 in the FBI’s affidavit was journalist Aída Chávez, who published five reports for the Capital & Empire Substack believed to be informed by details Brinksman is accused of lifting out of the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility in which he worked (see here, here, here, here, and here).
So why are we writing about this? That should be obvious by now. He’s been at Deloitte since 2022 and was doing a little contract work for the CIA:
From last Friday’s press release announcing the arrest:
According to the criminal complaint, beginning in 2020, the defendant worked as an employee of a U.S. government agency based in the Eastern District of Virginia and later in 2022 began working as a developer for systems integration for “Company 1,” a contractor to the same U.S. government agency. During all times relevant to the complaint, Brinksman held a Top Secret security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access.
As further detailed in the complaint, Brinksman had an ongoing personal relationship with an individual who maintains an online publication on Substack (Individual 1). A fundraising article reportedly published by Individual 1 in September 2026 claimed Individual 1 had “published reporting based on classified [relevant U.S. government agency] assessments.” Individual 1 posted on her social media profile, “I also accept leaks.”
The government has time stamps on him accessing the Classified Database, making phone calls, and working on a shared Google Doc with Individual 1 but still needs to connect A to B to make their case.
According to this it looks like he’s since been released into his mother’s custody and the government is keeping close tabs on him. Deloitte isn’t commenting on the situation, naturally.
The FBI affidavit is embedded in its entirety below:
