The Justice Department has arrested and charged an IT contractor with two counts of espionage for allegedly taking secret and top-secret information from the State Department and sending it to a international nation.
Abraham Teklu Lemma, a international nationwide with U.S. citizenship, used to be operating as a night assist table technician assigned to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research with the U.S. Department of State when he’s purported to have copied massive quantities of categorised information, together with paperwork, pictures, notes, maps and satellite tv for pc imagery, and transmitted it to a international nation the use of an encrypted messaging utility.
“Between on or about December 19, 2022, and August 7, 2023, Lemma copied and pasted information from at least 85 Intelligence Reports regarding many topics—the majority of which relate to the Relevant Country. Lemma accessed these Intelligence Reports without a need-to-know the classified information contained therein. During the same period, Lemma accessed at least an additional 48 Intelligence Reports without a need-to-know,” consistent with the legal criticism.
In this June 8, 2023, report picture, an indication for the Department of Justice is photographed in Washington, D.C.
Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP, FILE
He then allegedly transmitted the information to an unnamed person of an unnamed nation thru a protected messaging app on “multiple occasions.”
According to the criticism, “In one communication, Lemma sent an image relating to events in the Relevant Country and advised the Foreign Official, “[y]our team analyze this and establish some sort of sense to this,” according to the criminal complaint. In another exchange, the Foreign Official told Lemma, “[w]e making [sic] vital growth on avoiding the … in few days we can succeed in the essential milestones ….to not occur once more. Therefore, it’s now not a very long time we’re asking. Good if you’ll take a look at and [sic] again to me what u can do.”
Similarly, the foreign official advised Lemma, “[i]t is excellent to spot the ahead deployed command facilities and logistic facilities,” in response to Lema discussing locations in the Relevant Country,” courtroom paperwork say.
He has held a top-secret clearance since no less than 2020 and got a SCI in July of 2021.
The criticism states that on more than one events, Lemma traveled to an unnamed nation the place he has ties to and prior to, all the way through and after his travels, and “has downloaded over 100 documents containing classified information from the DOS classified system to CDs and/or DVDs.”
Since June, he used to be allegedly copying and pasting the categorised information right into a Microsoft Word record.
“DOS records further show Lemma then downloaded those Word files from the DOS classified system onto CDs and/or DVDs, which could then be taken out of the SCIF,” the courtroom paperwork say. “The material from Intelligence Reports that Lemma was reviewing and copying what was classified at the TOP SECRET and SECRET levels, and also related primarily to the Relevant Country,” the paperwork learn.
Between July and August of this yr, he allegedly copied information from intelligence experiences no less than 10 instances.
On more than one events closing month, he used to be allegedly noticed taking notes on a work of paper of categorised information at his table within the SCIF.
The Justice Department says different chat logs it exposed display Lemma used to be requested about particular intelligence information, and his account information used to be allegedly accessed within the consultant’s nation when Lemma used to be now not there.
The Justice Department alleges Lemma used to be paid over $100,000 in change for the information.
ABC News used to be now not in an instant ready to find a prison consultant for Lemma.
In addition to his paintings on the State Department, he’s recently hired all the way through the day as a freelance control analyst on the Justice Department, consistent with courtroom data.
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