An FBI translator with top secret clearance married an Islamic State fighter who is designated as a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist."
The translator's case was kept under wraps by the FBI and just became public, CNN exposed Monday night.
Daniela Greene, who was born in Czechoslovakia and raised in Germany, married a U.S. Army soldier. She attended Clemson University before going to work for the FBI. While working for the agency as a linguist, Greene was assigned to investigate a person now known as Denis Cuspert, a German rapper who became an ISIS recruiter.
Greene used Skype to track Cuspert. In the summer of 2014, she traveled to Syria, where she stayed with ISIS fighters and married Cuspert. Greene told Cuspert that she was an FBI employee and warned the terrorist about the investigation into him and his activities.
An FBI translator traveled to Syria in 2014 and married a key ISIS operative she had been assigned to investigate https://t.co/EYqGVbSdie pic.twitter.com/rPMHeI3vEu
— CNN (@CNN) May 2, 2017
Cuspert is well known to authorities around the world for his work for ISIS and is shown in many videos, including one with a severed human head. The State Department noted that Cuspert "committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States."
Weeks into her trip in Syria, Greene decided she wanted to go back to the United States. In August 2014 she went back to the U.S. and was arrested.
The Department of Justice hid Greene's case and ensuing plea deal. Court records were kept sealed for a while after her case.
Greene cooperated with authorities and was sentenced to only two years in prison. Now she is free and on probation, working as a hotel hostess.
Questions are now swirling as to why Greene received what appeared to be favorable treatment by the Department of Justice and prosecutors, when other cases involving ISIS recruitments have resulted in much heavier sentences.
The FBI would not comment on Greene's case, and the Department of Justice provided CNN with little information. CNN declined to note where Greene lives or show her face out of concern for her safety.