A former Army Ranger and military attorney was sentenced to 54 months in federal prison after lying to investigators about making contact with the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., and deleting national security materials, according to the Department of Justice.
First Lt. Manfredo Martin-Michael Madrigal III, 38, pled guilty in July 2024 to three counts of making false statements and one count of destroying U.S. Army materials.
Madrigal was assigned in February 2022 to work at the Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, known as the JAG School, where he was given a security clearance. He worked in the Training Developments Directorate, a wing tasked with creating training materials for the JAG Corps and Army.
While assigned to the school, he was placed under investigation for failing to report a previous DUI arrest. The federal prosecution team alleged Madrigal began to unravel then.
“Madrigal filmed himself on late February 6 and early February 7, 2022, accessing the JAG School’s national security training module,” court documents read.
Madrigal uttered derogatory, profane remarks toward the Army during the video and deleted online JAG training materials. He then placed a two-and-a-half minute call to the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., according to court documents.
“I am going to teach them a lesson,” he told a witness at the time. “Russia has reached out to me.”
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On Feb. 22, 2022, Madrigal was discharged from the JAG School and falsely claimed in exit paperwork that he’d never contacted a foreign national, despite having done so a few weeks prior. He repeated the same lies when he was interviewed by the FBI several months later.
Madrigal was arrested in August 2022 for cyberstalking an ex-girlfriend by accessing personal information stored in her apps, sending her threatening messages and threatening her in person while possessing a firearm, according to court documents.
A supporting affidavit also cited false statements Madrigal had made to the FBI regarding the Russian Embassy contact.
He was indicted in September 2023 for one count of willfully injuring U.S. property, four counts of making false statements to a U.S. agency, two counts of witness tampering and one count of cyberstalking.
Madrigal’s defense team argued the charges against him stemmed from romantic relationships and therefore, the proceedings should be held in state court instead of federal. The defense also argued that the materials Madrigal destroyed were “benign and redundant electronic PowerPoint slides.”
In a rebuttal, prosecutors painted Madrigal as both a national security threat and a danger to witnesses, whom he’d harassed and intimidated.
“[I]f I wanted to kill you, I would figure out a way to figure out when you’re going to be home, and I would come and kill you, if that’s what I wanted to do,” Madrigal said to a witness, according to court documents.
Riley Ceder is a reporter at Military Times, where he covers breaking news, criminal justice, investigations, and cyber. He previously worked as an investigative practicum student at The Washington Post, where he contributed to the Abused by the Badge investigation.
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