A U.S. Army intelligence officer accused of compromising AT&T reportedly made a huge mistake in addition to committing treasonous crimes: he Googled “Can hacking be treason” and “Defecting to Russia,” according to prosecutors who concluded that he had unlawfully accessed confidential phone records.
For background, Cameron John Wagenius, a 21-year-old Army intelligence specialist, was arrested in January 2025 and later pleaded guilty to illegally accessing then-President-Elect Donald Trump’s call logs by compromising AT&T. After his arrest, prosecutors reported that Wagenius had “conducted online searches” that made it clear that he was planning on defecting to another country.
According to federal court documents filed after Wagenius’s arrest, his revealing search history corresponded with the timeframe in which he committed his crimes. The prosecutors wrote, “While engaged in these criminal activities, Wagenius conducted online searches about how to defect to countries that do not extradite to the United States and that he previously attempted to sell hacked information to at least one foreign intelligence service.”
Furthermore, in the court documents, prosecutors argued that Wagenius “should be detained because he presents a serious risk of flight,” adding that he has “the means and intent to flee” and that he is “aware that he will likely face additional charges.” To support their case, the prosecutors pointed to the fact that Wagenius “conducted multiple, detailed searches about defecting from the U.S.”
Getting into the specifics, the prosecutors detailed how a review of Wagenius’s Google search history found the query, “where can i defect the u.s government military which country will not hand me over” and that he also searched for how to “defect[] to Russia.” Furthermore, the prosecutors noted that he made these searches “just days after explaining to a potential co-conspirator that he could not be arrested right away if authorities found out his true identity, which would give him ‘time to go AWOL.'”
In addition, the prosecutors said that there was evidence on Wagenius’s personal devices pointing to “access to large numbers of identification documents.” Explaining further, they wrote that a screenshot on Wagenius’s laptop “suggested he had over 17,000 files that included passports, driver’s licenses, and other identity cards belonging to victims of a breach.”
Furthermore, the federal prosecutors said that Wagenius was aware that he most likely faced additional charges, which they argued provided “yet another incentive to flee the United States.” They added, “Taken together, these facts all demonstrate that Wagenius has multiple motivations, the technical sophistication, and the means to flee.”
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Importantly, Wagenius was initially indicted for “knowingly and intentionally” selling “confidential phone records information of a covered entity, without prior authorization from the customer to whom such confidential phone records information related.” Moreover, press accounts clarified that he had allegedly obtained stolen call logs from both President-elect Donald Trump and then-Vice President Kamala Harris.
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