A former Ranger who became an Army lawyer was sentenced to more than four years in federal prison for lying about contacting a Russian embassy and deleting military-owned training materials from a computer system.
Manfredo Martin-Michael Madrigal, 38, also faced charges stemming from alleged harassment against two former girlfriends who were potential witnesses in the case. In court documents, one woman alleged that Madrigal sent her a mocking email that said “sorry to see you are still a failure” after he hacked into an app she used to track her menstrual cycles and learned of a negative pregnancy test, court documents say.
Madrigal signed a plea agreement July 16, 2024, and was sentenced Thursday, Department of Justice officials said in a release. The charges involving his former girlfriends — including cyberstalking as a form of domestic violence, and attempting to tamper with a witness or victim through intimidation, threats, corrupt persuasion, or misleading conduct — were dismissed at Madrigal’s sentencing.
Emails sent by Task & Purpose to Madrigal’s lawyers seeking comment were not returned.
Before becoming a lawyer in 2019, Madrigal served as an infantry soldier and non-commissioned officer in the 75th Ranger Regiment and 82nd Airborne Division. In those roles, he served “multiple tours of duty in combat zones overseas,” according to court documents. Inquiries sent to the Army by Task & Purpose about Madrigal’s service history were not immediately returned, but he is pictured as a sergeant in the 82nd Airborne in 2014 in a military photo archive.
According to the indictment, Madrigal got his legal degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2019, a master’s degree in Homeland Security in 2019, and was admitted to the Missouri State Bar in 2020.
By 2022, Madrigal was assigned to an office in charge of developing training materials at the Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Virginia. That February, he filmed himself deleting an online interactive module on national security law. Madrigal kept a running commentary in the video as he was deleting the files.
“You guys decide you’re going throw me to the wayside, no, I don’t think so,” Madrigal said in the video, according to the indictment. “You people thought you can [expletive] me?…You thought you could easily remove me?…You aren’t going to take my knowledge and use it against me.”
He also texted a former girlfriend as he removed the files, according to time stamps, saying “I am teaching them a lesson,” “I am going to bring their house down on them,” “Do you see the power I have?” and “I own everything.”
At the time of the federal inquiry in early 2022, Madrigal was being investigated by the Army and the JAG School for not reporting a previous arrest for driving under the influence. The DUI, according to court documents, occurred before he was assigned to the JAG school.
After deleting the files, Madrigal was discharged from the Army and in his exit paperwork checked a box indicating that he had no unreported contact with foreign nationals — which FBI agents soon learned was false.
In fact, he had tried to contact the Russian embassy in Washington D.C., officials say, and had told his previous girlfriends about it. In interviews with FBI agents a few months later, Madrigal again denied that he deleted materials or that he had contact with Russian embassy officials.
However, investigating agents said his phone records indicated he had had a “substantive conversation” with a Russian government official. Madrigal’s phone records showed a call log to the embassy that lasted approximately 2 minutes and 26 seconds during the same time period of him deleting records, according to the indictment.
Dismissed charges
FBI agents were able to corroborate Madrigal’s false statements about contacting the Russian embassy and deleting legal training materials through communications he shared with two ex-girlfriends. The indictment also detailed allegations of abusive behavior toward both women.
The first woman described emotional abuse and threats that Madrigal directed at her throughout 2021 and 2022.
In December 2021, Madrigal showed up at the first woman’s home without permission and threatened to commit suicide after an argument. The woman left and refused to return until Madrigal left the property, but before he left he took her iPad, journal and other belongings, and “attempted to potentially poison” her cat by grinding up her pet’s medication into their food dish. Madrigal also “left a knife stuck into a food container with an image of a bear” in her apartment. “Bear,” the indictment said, was Madrigal’s nickname between the couple.
For months afterward, Madrigal insulted the woman to mutual colleagues, sent her explicit photos and videos he had taken of her without consent and accessed a menstrual tracking app and pregnancy test results, according to the indictment.
The indictment also described Madrigal’s alleged abuse toward the second woman including efforts to choke her and threatening her while holding a pistol to her head.
According to the indictment, the second woman told the FBI that she believed Madrigal gave her name to the FBI as a witness to interview because “he could manipulate her.” She also told agents that she was “being coached” by Madrigal before her FBI interview and came up with code words to describe how it went after. When she shared her “transcript” of the interview, Madrigal yelled at her for misremembering how to classify his drinking habits.
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