Biography
James F. Hitselberger is a former Navy contract linguist who worked with the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain. Military investigators accused him in 2012 of taking classified documents from a secure work area; one document was later found in the Hoover Institution archives at Stanford University. Prosecutors initially charged him under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention of national-defense information. He spent 54 days without bond in the District of Columbia jail before a judge released him on December 19, 2012 to strict home confinement and electronic monitoring. In April 2014 the government replaced the Espionage Act charge with a misdemeanor count of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. Hitselberger pleaded guilty and was sentenced on July 17, 2014 to time served and a $250 fine.
