A Rockville, Maryland, couple has been federally indicted for allegedly misusing their access as doctors in an attempt to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
U.S. Army Dr. Jamie Lee Henry, 39, and Johns Hopkins anesthesiologist Dr. Anna Gabrielian, 36, used their privileges to pull the medical records of U.S. military personnel, with the goal of getting that information to the Kremlin, according to the indictment.
In 2015, Henry became the first openly transgender member of the military, according to reports. Marci Lubin, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Maryland, said in court and during the investigation that Henry referred to himself as male.
The DMV Download tackled the details of the indictment and spoke about intelligence gathering with an expert. Listen here:
It was in mid-August that Gabrielian was approached by someone she thought was a representative of Russia, according to court documents. The representative, instead, was an undercover FBI agent who was aware that Gabrielian had contacted the Russian embassy by email and phone earlier in the year to offer her and Henry’s assistance to Russia, court documents said.
Investigators said during the meetings between the undercover agent at hotel rooms in Baltimore and Gaithersburg that she not only expressed her and her spouse’s willingness to help, but she also shared confidential information on several current and former members of the U.S. military and their families.
One piece of information that was shared with the undercover agent was about the spouse of an employee of the Office of Naval Intelligence, whose medical issue was something Russia could use to its advantage, The Associated Press reported.
Henry is a staff internist at Fort Bragg in North Carolina and held a Secret-level security clearance.
During initial interactions with the undercover agent, Gabrielian referred to her spouse as being “a more important source of information for Russian than she was,” prosecutors said.
While she allegedly claimed she was not worried about going to jail for helping Moscow, prosecutors said that Gabrielian laid out cover stories and sought to maintain “plausible deniability” in case she was confronted by authorities.
She also demanded that if she were at risk, she wanted a promise that her children would have a “nice flight to Turkey to go on vacation because I don’t want to end in jail here with my kids being hostages over my head.”
Gabrielian also told the undercover agent that her spouse was a “coward” who was concerned about violating HIPPA laws, which she admitted violating “all the time.”
Gabrielian promised information with details on how the U.S. military establishes an army hospital in war conditions.
In statements cited in court documents, Gabrielian said that “she was motivated by patriotism toward Russia.” Henry reportedly told the FBI agent that the U.S. was using “Ukrainians as a proxy for their own hatred toward Russia.”
“My point of view is until the United States actually declares war against Russia, I’m able to help as much as I want,” Henry reportedly said. “At that point, I’ll have some ethical issues I have to work through.”
Kim Hoppe, vice president of communications for Johns Hopkins Medicine, said in a statement to WTOP that Gabrielian has been on staff since 2019 and is on leave as of Thursday. Henry was never employed by Johns Hopkins.
“We were shocked to learn about this news this morning and intend to fully cooperate with investigators,” Hoppe said.
Henry and Gabrielian were indicted on charges of conspiracy and wrongful disclosure of individually identifiable health information. Both face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
