Ex-NSA worker is charged with trying to sell top secret material to Russia
The FBI arrested and charged a former NSA employee who was attempting to sell classified documents to the Russian foreign service, according to documents made public this week.
Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30, of Colorado Springs, had worked for the National Security Agency for less than a month when he reached out to an individual he believed was a representative of the Russian government.
But the contact was actually an undercover FBI agent, according to an indictment filed Thursday.
Dalke began communication on July 29, 2022 via encrypted email with an individual he believed was associated with the Kremlin, but who was actually an FBI agent.
Dalke worked for just one month as an Information Systems Security Designer from June 6 of this year to July 1. In late July, however, he told the undercover FBI agent that he was still in the employ of the US government.
Though he was not employed by the NSA during the time he was communicating with the undercover FBI agent, he re-applied to the NSA in August as he was actively attempting to sell US secrets.
He first requested payment via an undisclosed form and amount of cryptocurrency and in late August requested $85,000 for additional information.
Pictured: NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. Dalke worked for the NSA for just one month during summer 2022 before attempting to sell Top Secret US information to Russian adversaries
The exchanges confirm that Dalke told the individual he had taken highly sensitive information relating to US targeting and cyber operations and that he wanted to sell it.
He stands accused of attempting to send classified documents to the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.
Allegedly, Dalke reached out to the FBI’s online covert employee, who he thought was an agent of Russia, and said he’d ‘recently learned that my heritage ties back to your country, which is part of why I have come to you.’
He continued his traitorous messages by saying he was reaching out because he has ‘questioned our role in damage to the world in the past and by mixture of curiosity for secrets and a desire to cause change.’
In order to prove he had access to sensitive information, Dalke sent excerpts of several classified documents to the undercover agent – one at the Secret level and two at the Top Secret level.
He also expressed financial need during the communications.
Dalke was arrested on September 28 in Denver, Colorado, where he had agreed to meet the FBI agent to hand over classified information.
The FBI says Dalke was a volunteer with the Colorado Rangers, a reserve law enforcement agency.
In his own resume, Dalke described himself as a lieutenant and commander of the digital crimes unit of the Colorado Rangers, according to CBS.
He has been charged with three violations of the Espionage Act, under which it is a crime to transmit or attempt to transmit National Defense Information to a representative of a foreign country with reason to believe the information could be used to harm the US.
If convicted, Dalke could face any number of years in prison up to a life sentence or the death penalty.