Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a former information systems security designer with the National Security Agency, was sentenced Monday, to 262 months in prison for attempted espionage.
According to court documents, Dalke pleaded guilty in 2023 to six counts of attempted transmission of classified National Defense Information to an agent of the Russian Federation.
According to a DoJ news release, Dalked was an employee of the NSA from June 6 to July 1, 2022. He admitted that between August and September 2022, he used an encrypted email to send excerpts of classified documents to an individual that he believed was an agent of Russia. Instead, that person was an FBI online covert employee.
All of the documents that Dalke used to send excerpts to the ‘Russian Agent’, were classified as Top Secrety//Sensitive Compartmented Information and were obtained during his employment with the NSA.
Dalke, on or about August 26, 2022, requested $85,000 for all of his information. Dalke told the FBI’s online covert employee, that the information that he had in his possession would be ‘of value’ to Russia, and that he would share more when he returned to the D.C. area.
“This defendant, who had sworn an oath to defend our country, believed he was selling classified national security information to a Russian agent, when in fact, he was outing himself to the FBI,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “This sentence demonstrates that those who seek to betray our country will be held accountable for their crimes. I am grateful to the FBI Denver and Washington Field Offices for their extraordinary work on this case.”
The FBI arrested Dalke on September 28, 2023, moments after he had completed an arranged transfer of the files that he had stolen.
“This sentence should serve as a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information that there are consequences to betraying that trust,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Dalke believed he was passing classified information to an agent of the Russian government. The hard work of our FBI employees prevented that from happening and any potential harm to the United States.”
