First US transgender Army major and doctor wife charged with spying for Russia to help in war against Ukraine

By Adeleye Kunle

A U.S. Army major doctor and her physician wife have been charged with a criminal plot to give confidential medical information of U.S. military members and their spouses to the Russian government.

US Prosecutors said the couple planned to help Russia in its ongoing war against Ukraine by passing the confidential information.

The couple, Maj. Jamie Lee Henry, who is transgender and anesthesiologist Anna Gabrielian, were named in a federal indictment in U.S. District Court on Thursday, September 29 in Baltimore charging them with conspiracy to disclose health information.

Prosecutors say the couple allegedly revealed their plot to an undercover agent posing as a Russian government-connected official.

The couple were named in an eight-count federal indictment unsealed Thursday, charging both of them with conspiracy, and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information.

Henry was a staff internist who held secret-level security clearance at North Carolina’s Fort Bragg, the largest military post in the U.S. The fort is the home of the Army’s XVIII Airborne Corps, the headquarters of the Army’s Special Operations Command, and the Womack Army Medical Center.

Henry in 2015 reportedly became the first known active-duty Army officer to come out as transgender. While she identifies herself as a woman, the indictment repeatedly refers to Henry by male pronouns.

Gabrielian speaks both English and Russian, according to the web page of Johns Hopkins, which is located in Baltimore.

The indictment said the couple, who live in Rockville, Maryland, believed they would be giving medical information related to patients at Fort Bragg and Johns Hopkins to a person working at the Russian embassy in Washington but in reality, that other person was an undercover FBI agent.

In mid-August, the undercover agent approached Gabrielian and asked her about the assistance she had offered to the Russian embassy several months earlier via phone and email.

The indictment accuses the couple of providing that agent medical information related to patients at Fort Bragg and Johns Hopkins to demonstrate their level of access to such information of “U.S. personnel,” and to show “the potential for the Russian government to gain insights into the medical conditions of individuals associated with the U.S. government and military, to exploit this information.”

Gabrielian agreed to meet the agent in a Baltimore hotel room on Aug. 17, the indictment says.

Later that same day, she called the agent “to reaffirm” the couple “were committed to helping Russia,” the indictment alleges.