The price of betrayal is almost 22 years in prison for selling the country's secrets.
A former NSA employee has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison for attempting to spy for a foreign country.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the verdict should serve as a stark warning to all those charged with protecting national defense information about the consequences of treason.
32-year-old Jare Sebastian Dahlke from Colorado Springs worked as an information systems security designer at the NSA from June 6 to July 1, 2022, with access to sensitive information.
Despite his short tenure at the agency, Dahlke made contact between August and September of that year with a person whom he considered to be an agent of a foreign State. It was actually an undercover FBI agent.
To demonstrate his "legitimate access and willingness to share," Dahlke sent the agent snippets from three classified national defense documents he received while working, using an encrypted email account.
Dahlke demanded $85,000 in exchange for handing over all the files he had, claiming that the information would be valuable to the buyer, and promised that he would hand over more documents after returning to Washington.
Dahlke was arrested on September 28, 2022, shortly after passing 5 files to an alleged spy at Union Station in downtown Denver using a laptop computer. The accused pleaded guilty in October 2023.
The US Department of Justice noted that as part of the plea agreement, Dahlke admitted that he knowingly gave the files to an undercover FBI employee with the intent and knowledge that the information would be used to harm the United States and benefit a foreign country.
A former NSA employee has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison for attempting to spy for a foreign country.
FBI Director Christopher Wray said the verdict should serve as a stark warning to all those charged with protecting national defense information about the consequences of treason.
32-year-old Jare Sebastian Dahlke from Colorado Springs worked as an information systems security designer at the NSA from June 6 to July 1, 2022, with access to sensitive information.
Despite his short tenure at the agency, Dahlke made contact between August and September of that year with a person whom he considered to be an agent of a foreign State. It was actually an undercover FBI agent.
To demonstrate his "legitimate access and willingness to share," Dahlke sent the agent snippets from three classified national defense documents he received while working, using an encrypted email account.
Dahlke demanded $85,000 in exchange for handing over all the files he had, claiming that the information would be valuable to the buyer, and promised that he would hand over more documents after returning to Washington.
Dahlke was arrested on September 28, 2022, shortly after passing 5 files to an alleged spy at Union Station in downtown Denver using a laptop computer. The accused pleaded guilty in October 2023.
The US Department of Justice noted that as part of the plea agreement, Dahlke admitted that he knowingly gave the files to an undercover FBI employee with the intent and knowledge that the information would be used to harm the United States and benefit a foreign country.
