An arrest has been made by FBI investigators in a significant espionage case that may have had a significant impact on American national security.
According to The Conservative Brief, Jareh Sebastian Dalke, an NSA employee from Colorado Springs, appeared in federal court for the first time on allegations that he tried to sell state secrets to an undercover FBI agent who was thought to be a foreign operator.
Dalke is charged with espionage for allegedly planning to give a Russian agent access to National Defense Information.
Dalke, 30, “served as an Information Systems Security Designer” for less than a month earlier this year.
The recently arrested agent used an encrypted email account to send several classified documents to a person he thought was working for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.
“In reality, that individual was a covert FBI agent. The undercover FBI agent was then given access to further secret information that Dalke had in his hands at a site in Denver, Colorado, according to the DOJ.
When the NSA employee went to see his alleged Russian contact, he was detained last week on suspicion of trying to sell further material.
The DOJ press release further states:
According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Dalke began communicating on or about July 29, 2022, via encrypted email with an individual he believed to be associated with a foreign government. Dalke told that individual that he had taken highly sensitive information relating to foreign targeting of U.S. systems and information on U.S. cyber operations, among other topics.
Dalke represented to the undercover FBI agent that he was still employed by the U.S. government but said he was on a temporary assignment at a field location. Dalke requested compensation via a specific type of cryptocurrency in exchange for the information he possessed and stated that he was in financial need.
“To prove he had access to sensitive information, Dalke transmitted excerpts of three classified documents to the undercover FBI agent. Each excerpt contained classification markings. One excerpt was classified at the Secret level, and two excerpts were classified at the Top Secret level. In return for this information, the FBI undercover agent provided the requested cryptocurrency to an address Dalke provided,” the press release continued.
“On or about Aug. 26, 2022, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for additional information in his possession. Dalke also told the FBI undercover agent that he would share additional information in the future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C., area. Although he was not employed by the NSA while communicating with the FBI, Dalke re-applied to the NSA in August 2022,” the DOJ said.