Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, of Colorado Springs, was sentenced
today to 262 months in prison for attempted espionage in connections with his
efforts to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent
of the Russian Federation.
According to
court documents, Dalke pleaded
guilty in 2023 to six counts of attempting to transmit
classified NDI to a foreign agent. From June 6 to July 1, 2022, Dalke was an
employee of the National Security Agency (NSA) where he served as an
Information Systems Security Designer. Dalke admitted that between August and
September 2022, in order to demonstrate both his “legitimate access and
willingness to share,” he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts
of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent.
That person was an FBI online covert employee. 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.
“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 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.”
“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.”
“Two primary
objectives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado include
keeping our citizens safe, and safeguarding the United States of America,” said
U.S. Attorney Cole Finegan for the District of Colorado. “Not only is this case
an exceptional example of federal law enforcement cooperation, but the sentence
Mr. Dalke received today reflects the seriousness of the actions he took in
attempt to injure our country and help a foreign government.”
On or about 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 FBI online covert employee that he would share more information in the
future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C.-area.
Dalke
subsequently arranged to transfer additional classified information in his
possession to the purported Russian agent at Union Station in downtown Denver.
Using a laptop computer and the instructions provided by the FBI online covert
employee, Dalke transferred five files, four of which contain Top Secret NDI.
The other file was a letter, which begins (in Russian and Cyrillic characters)
“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, 2023, moments after he transmitted the files.
As part of his
plea agreement, Dalke admitted that he willfully transmitted files to the FBI
online covert employee with the intent and reason to believe the information
would be used to injure the United States and to benefit Russia.
The FBI
Washington and Denver Field Offices investigated the case.
Assistant U.S.
Attorneys Julia K. Martinez and Jena R. Neuscheler for the District of Colorado
and Trial Attorneys Christina A. Clark and Adam L. Small of the National
Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section handled the
prosecution.
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