Brandon Tyner expected to be charged Sunday or Monday, U.S. officials say
A U.S. Army lieutenant colonel arrested in the U.K. over allegations of spying for Russia was caught in a sting operation and is expected to be charged on Sunday or Monday, according to U.S. officials familiar with the case.
The officer, Lt. Col. Brandon Tyner, joined the Army in 2008 and previously served in Afghanistan, Qatar and Iraq, according to one of the officials.
Tyner was assigned to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s Allied Rapid Reaction Corps at the time of his arrest near Gloucester in the U.K. The organization, known as ARRC, is designed to command the alliance’s land forces in the event of a conflict or crisis. It had recently participated in an exercise involving the defense of Europe.
He was serving in a personnel and human resources role at the time, officials said.
Tyner was promoted to the rank of major in 2018 and to lieutenant colonel in 2024, according to official records. He earned a Bronze Star, a nod to his overseas deployments.
After being tried in the U.K., Tyner is expected to be prosecuted in the U.S. under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, one of the officials said.
U.S. officials said Tyner was unwittingly speaking with British authorities, and that his motive isn’t clear. A phone number affiliated with Tyner couldn’t be reached, and an email affiliated with him wasn’t returned.
The Kremlin denied having ties to the soldier. “This arrest does not concern us in any way,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Wednesday. “We don’t know what it’s connected to. We have nothing to do with this.”