The Justice Department charged an Army doctor and a Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist on Thursday with conspiring to provide medical information about US soldiers and their families to the Russian government.
According to a Hopkins webpage, the indictment names Jamie Lee Henry, an Army major at Fort Bragg who had a secret security clearance, and Henry’s wife, Anna Gabrielian, a Russian-speaker who is affiliated with Johns Hopkins.
They are accused of passing sensitive information to an undercover FBI agent posing as a Russian Embassy representative.
According to the indictment, the FBI learned that Gabrielian had volunteered to help Russia through its embassy in Washington.
The indictment claims that during an Aug. 17 meeting in a Baltimore hotel room, Gabrielian told the undercover FBI agent that “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.”
According to the indictment, Gabrielian told the agent that she had contacted the Russian Embassy via email and phone, offering Russia assistance from both herself and her husband, Henry.
She told the agent that, while Henry was aware she was contacting the Russian Embassy on both their behalf, she did not mention Henry’s name in her interactions with the Russian Embassy, allowing Henry to claim ignorance.
The indictment refers to Henry as male, but Henry became the first openly transgender Army officer in 2015. According to Marcia Murphy, a spokeswoman for the United States Attorney’s Office in Baltimore, Henry addressed himself as a man in interactions with the undercover FBI agent.
According to the indictment, Gabrielian and Henry met with the undercover agent later that day, on August 17. According to the indictment, Henry expressed a desire to help Russia and had considered volunteering to join the Russian army after the conflict in Ukraine began, but Russia required combat experience, which Henry lacked. According to the indictment, Henry added, “the way I see what is going on in Ukraine now is that the US is using Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”
The FBI agent met Gabrielian and Henry at a hotel in Gaithersburg, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., on Aug. 31, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, Gabrielian provided the agent with medical information about the spouse of a person employed by the Office of Naval Intelligence — and highlighted a medical issue that Russia could exploit.
Henry allegedly provided information on at least five Fort Bragg patients, including a retired Army officer, a current Department of Defense employee, the spouse of a US Army veteran, and two spouses of deceased US Army veterans.
According to court records, Gabrielian and Henry have been arrested; it is unclear whether they have attorneys.
The defendants face up to five years in federal prison for conspiracy and up to ten years in federal prison for each count of disclosing health information.
“We were shocked to learn about this news this morning,” a spokesperson for Johns Hopkins Medicine said in a statement. “We intend to fully cooperate with investigators.”
