Facebook Friends and Sex with Foreign National Sink Clearance Eligibility

A recent Defense Office of Hearing and Appeals case involved a DoD contractor who was denied security clearance eligibility by the DoD CAS based on security concerns involving foreign influence, misuse of IT, sexual behavior, and personal conduct. He subsequently appealed to DOHA. Here are the highlights:

The contractor retired from the Navy in 2022 and started a contractor position shortly thereafter. While at work, he began using Facebook and his emails, messaging women in the Dominican Republic and exchanging explicit sexual photos with them. He even sent them small amounts of money upon their request. He then took a trip to visit one of them and engaged in sexual relations, even though he was still married. He also had contact with other women in Bahrain and Sudan. His employer’s cybersecurity team noticed his activity during a user monitoring and conducted an audit of his computer use. They discovered his explicit Facebook use and email traffic, and he was subsequently fired. He had not disclosed his sexual exploits to his wife yet.

The judge in this case noted that although the contractor served in the Navy for over 30 years and had not had any previous incidents in holding a clearance, the recency of his exhibition of poor judgement and behavior, and the fact he has not admitted his conduct to his wife makes him vulnerable to coercion.  Based on this, more time was needed to reestablish his reliability and trustworthiness – clearance eligibility denied.