Federal agent accused of falling in love with terrorism suspect, impeding investigation

He paid for an expensive birthday party, got her son a job, and brought her on a trip to Greece

(orangesparrow/flickr/CreativeCommons)

A US special agent stands accused of falling in love and providing top-secret information to her boyfriend, thereby compromising an FBI counterterrorism investigation, it has been reported.

Leatrice Malika De Bruhl-Daniels was considered an exemplary employee in the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and the agency assigned her to a station in the United Arab Emirates, where she met Nadal Diya, who was under investigation for possible terrorism charges.

The agency claims Ms De Bruhl-Daniels fell in love with and decided to help the suspect, using her position to inform him of investigations about him.

Ms De Bruhl-Daniels has pleaded not guilty to attempting to obstruct, influence or impede justice, the Houston Chronicle reports.

She is awaiting a court date and is on indefinite suspension from the NCIS. Mr Diya is on bond in Toronto on suspicion of using fraudulent passports.

As the alleged affair blossomed, members of the NCIS reportedly warned Ms De Bruhl-Daniels multiple times to keep her distance from Mr Diya, and she never disclosed the extent of their relationship.

Witnesses told investigators the two became close enough Mr Diya paid for a birthday party believed to have cost tens of thousands of dollars, and allegedly paid for part of her trip with him to Greece. Ms De Bruhl-Daniels’ son also allegedly took a paid job with Mr Diya.

Court documents showed an email sent from Ms De Bruhl-Daniels’ account to herself said: “I’m deeply attracted to you and I can’t think about you like that. It’s not right.” The email was titled “Thoughts on ND".

Later, transcripts of text messages to Mr Diya appeared to share top-secret information with him and suggest how he should deal with an investigation.

“Whatever they hv on u is more than just suspicion so it’s serious,” one said, according to the Chronicle.

Ms De Bruhl-Daniels’ messages suggest she wanted the two of them to pretend they were just friends in case she was suspected of “acting as some sort of dbl [double] agent”.