TAMPA, Fla. – A retired U.S. Army Colonel and former civilian employee at U.S. Central Command is headed to federal prison after leaking top-secret military plans via a text message.
Kevin Charles Luke, 62, of Tampa, was sentenced to 24 months behind his bars by U.S. District Judge James Moody, Jr. for the disclosure of classified information relating to the national defense of the United States. The announcement of the sentence came from U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe.
Luke’s legal troubles began after he pleaded guilty on October 7, 2025.
As part of his plea agreement, the career military man admitted to abusing a position of public trust. Luke had a long history of service, spanning both active duty and reserve components of the U.S. Army from 1981 until his retirement as a Colonel in 2018.
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Following his military career, he transitioned into a civilian role at CENTCOM. Throughout his tenure in both roles, Luke held a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance. Records show he had signed a Standard Form 312 Nondisclosure Agreement as recently as February 2019, explicitly acknowledging his duty to protect the country’s secrets.
The breach occurred in October 2024 when Luke reached out to a woman from his personal cellphone. He sent a message that read, “sent to my boss earlier, gives you a peek at what I do for a living.” He followed that text with a photograph of a computer screen.
The image showed a classified email Luke had written and sent through a secure government server.
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The contents of that photo were far from routine. It revealed specific targets of an upcoming U.S. military operation, including the scheduled date, the methods to be used, and the overall objective. While Luke had personally added “Secret” level markings to the email, the unauthorized release of that data was determined to be capable of causing serious damage to national security.
The investigation into the leak was a joint effort between the U.S. Army Office of Special Investigations and the FBI. The case was brought to court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Schmidt and Trial Attorney Leslie Esbrook from the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
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