Navy Commander gets 13 years for distributing child sex abuse materials and retaining classified national defense files at his home residence
On Thursday, May 30, Gregory Edward McLean, 40, of Jacksonville, Florida, was sentenced to prison for 160 months for distributing child sexual abuse material and 120 months for unlawfully retaining classified national defense information. The sentences will be served concurrently.
According to court documents, state law enforcement in Rhode Island received a cyber tipline report that a user of a particular messaging application had shared videos depicting the sexual abuse of young children. The investigation identified the user as McLean, who was at that time an active-duty officer in the U.S. Navy, with the rank of Lieutenant Commander and serving as the executive officer of a ship stationed aboard a Naval Station Mayport in Florida. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) continued the investigation and identified additional instances where McLean had distributed child sexual abuse material.
On November 4, 2021, agents executed a federal search warrant at McLean’s residence, where they seized numerous electronic devices and storage media. A forensic review revealed that several of these items contained files depicting the sexual abuse of minors.
The forensic review also identified a flash drive which had been recovered from McLean’s kitchen counter that contained approximately 150 documents containing national defense information classified at the secret level and 50 documents containing national defense information classified at the confidential level. An investigation by NCIS and the FBI revealed that throughout his service as a naval officer, McLean had access to classified information and held a top-secret security clearance. ~ Department of Justice
Although McLean was cleared to handle classified information, he was aware that his home was not an authorized location to store classified national defense information. In particular, court documents identify two documents McLean unlawfully retained which contained national defense information related to foreign governments and their combat aircraft and naval capabilities. Disclosure of this information could reasonably be expected to cause damage and, in some instances, serious damage to the national security of the United States.
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Interestingly, one of the several active court cases involving former U.S. president Donald Trump also has to do with him having been indicted with obstruction and “willful retention of national defense information,” regarding keeping cases and cases of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida. For more on that story, see the video accompanying this article.
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(Source: Department of Justice)
Posted by Richard Webster, Ace News Today
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