Federal judge REJECTS plea deals for couple who tried to sell information about nuclear-powered subs
A federal judge has rejected the plea deals of a naval engineer and his wife because they weren’t harsh enough – after they were found guilty of trying to sell information about nuclear-powered submarines to a foreign government.
Jonathan Toebbe, 43, and his schoolteacher wife Diana, 46, plead guilty to violating the Atomic Energy Act earlier this year in a deal asking for between 12.5 and 17.5 years in prison for Jonathan, and three for Diana.
But the couple withdrew those pleas after US District Judge Gina M. Groh said the the terms were not proportionate to their crimes.
‘I find the sentencing options available to me to be strikingly deficient,’ Groh said during the sentencing in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after noting she normally honors the terms of a plea deals even if she doesn’t not agree with, ‘Make no mistake, these defendants have been charged with very serious crimes.’
The prosecution and defense alike appeared taken aback by Groh’s ruling, according to The Washington Post, but made no comment. The judge set a trial date for January, 2023, but the Toebbes will be able to negotiate new plea deals before then if they wish.
The couple were arrested in October, 2021, after trying to sell the submarine secrets to a Brazil because Diana was outraged by President Trump. Unfortunately for the would-be spies, their foreign contact was an undercover FBI agent.
Jonathan Toebbe, 43, (right) and his schoolteacher wife Diana, 46, (left) plead guilty to violating the Atomic Energy Act earlier this year in a deal asking for between 12.5 and 17.5 years in prison for Jonathan, and three for Diana.
In February Jonathan and Diana Toebbe both plead guilty to trying to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign power
The FBI said the Toebbes’ scheme began in April 2020, when Toebbe – then a nuclear engineer for the US Navy dealing with nuclear submarine propulsion systems – sent a package of Navy documents to a Brazilian military intelligence agency said he was keen to sell them more secrets.
The agency then told FBI investigators of Toebbe’s plot, and installed an undercover agent posing as a representative for Brazil.
That set off a monthlong undercover operation in which the agent made contact with Toebbe and agreed to pay $100,000 in cryptocurrency for the information Toebbe was offering. Toebbe was already paid $70,000 before he was caught.
In one message to the ‘buyers’ Jonathan indicated that he had been considering his actions for several years and was happy to work with ‘a reliable professional partner.’
He also wrote that he had divided confidential data he had collected into 51 ‘packages’ of information, and sought $100,000 for each.
Diana was accused of serving as an accomplice and a ‘lookout’ at several prearranged ‘dead-drop’ locations at which her husband deposited memory cards containing government secrets, concealing them in objects such as a chewing gum wrapper and a peanut butter sandwich.
A sketch of Jonathan and Diana Toebbe’s first court appearance in West Virginia in October 2021
Jonathan Toebbe was a nuclear engineer for the US Navy dealing with nuclear submarine propulsion systems when he tried to sell Navy secrets
It remains unclear exactly why the Toebbes, parents of two, decided to wrap themselves up in the plot. But texts found during the investigation into their actions showed a couple so virulently unhappy with then-president Donald Trump that they considered fleeing the country.
‘We need to get out,’ Diana wrote in a message to her husband,
‘*sigh* where? To do what?’ he said back.
‘To anywhere. To do something else. To teach in international schools. To take Macron up on his offer to harbor scientific refugees,’ she responded.
Despite assuring his wife that Biden would handily defeat Trump in the election, Diana was not satisfied.
‘WE NEED TO GET OUT. Hilary (sic) was going to curb stomp trump. I’m done.’
