OREANDA-NEWS. 47-year-old Elizabeth Jo Shirley, citizen of the USA, pleaded guilty to illegal storage of secret intelligence data of the US National Security Agency. This was reported by the United States Department of Justice.

According to its message, on trial in West Virginia on July 6, Shirley pleaded guilty to deliberate storage of information regarding national defense, as well as kidnapping of her own child. US authorities say that Shirley, while serving in the US Air Force, first gained access to classified data in 1994. Subsequently, during serving in reserve and then at the US Navy, she also repeatedly gained access to such documents.

The prosecution alleges that in July 2019, Shirley, along with her six-year-old daughter, left for Mexico, from where she intended to move to a country from which she would not be extradited to the United States.

In August, she was detained at a hotel in Mexico City at the request of US authorities. A woman faces up to 13 years in prison and a fine of up to 500 thousand dollars.