(COLORADO SPRINGS) — A former National Security Agency (NSA) employee pleaded guilty on Monday, Oct. 23, to six counts of attempting to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent of the Russian Federation.
According to court documents, 31-year-old Jareh Sebastian Dalke of Colorado Springs served as an Information Systems Security Designer for the NSA from June 6, 2022, to July 1, 2022.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said Dalke admitted that between August and September 2022, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to a person he believed was a Russian agent. The DOJ said he admitted to sharing the excerpts as a means to demonstrate both his “legitimate access and willingness to share.”
However, the person he was transmitting the information to was a Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) undercover agent. The DOJ said all three documents from which the excerpts were taken contain NDI, are classified as Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) and were obtained by Dalke during his employment with the NSA.
The DOJ said around Aug. 26, 2022, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for all the information in his possession. Dalke claimed the information would be of value to Russia and told the undercover FBI agent that he would share more information in the future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C. area.
The DOJ said Dalke then arranged to transfer more classified information to the supposed Russian agent at Union Station in downtown Denver. Using a laptop and a set of instructions provided by the undercover FBI agent, Dalke transferred five files, four of which contained Top Secret NDI.
The fifth file was a letter, which began: “My friends!” and states, in part, “I am very happy to finally provide this information to you. . . . I look forward to our friendship and shared benefit. Please let me know if there are desired documents to find and I will try when I return to my main office.”
The FBI arrested Dalke on Sept. 28, 2022, moments after transferring the files.
As part of his plea agreement, Dalke admitted that he willfully transmitted files to the covert FBI employee “with the intent and reason to believe the information would be used to injure the United States and to benefit Russia,” the DOJ said.
Dalke faces a maximum penalty of up to life in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for April 26, 2024.
