David McBride

Early life McBride was born in 1963 to William McBride, an obstetrician in Sydney, and Patricia McBride (née Glover), also a doctor. He has two sisters, Catherine and Louise, and one brother, John. he enlisted in the Australian Army as a lawyer.

Leak of military documents In 2016, McBride leaked classified military documents to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The ABC found evidence of war crimes and published the information in their 2017 publication The Afghan Files. McBride was allegedly unhappy with ABC's reporting of his documents.

In September 2018, McBride was arrested at Sydney Airport His legal team included Nick Xenophon and Mark Davis.

In October 2022, it was reported that the case against McBride would proceed to trial. McBride and his lawyers had tried to get the prosecution dropped by applying for protection under Australia's whistleblower laws. This application relied on expert testimony of two witnesses. However, the Australian Government moved to prevent his testimony from being heard on national security grounds. Consequently McBride and his team dropped the application to stop the trial saying "there was little prospect of success without their evidence".

During the case, McBride's lawyers stated he acted out of concern about the nature of the Defence Force's "excessive investigation of soldiers" in Afghanistan. McBride believed the investigations were a "PR exercise" to compensate for earlier public allegations of war crimes. Justice David Mossop stated "the way you've explained it is that the higher-ups might have been acting illegally by investigating these people too much, and that that was the source of the illegality that was being exposed." The prosecution voiced concerns about military personnel being "able to act by reference to something as nebulous as the public interest". The plea came after Justice Mossop ruled that he would instruct the incoming jury that McBride was not bound to act in the public interest under his oath of service. The government were also allowed to claim public-interest immunity for documents McBride's defence team sought to use. No appeal was allowed for either decision, and on 14 May 2024, McBride was sentenced to five years and eight months in prison.

Personal life McBride has two daughters from a former marriage, to Sarah (née Green). The couple separated in 2016.

In 2023, Crikey named McBride their Person of the Year.