DENVER –
A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado is accused of attempting to sell classified information to a hostile foreign government in an attempt to pay off debt and “help balance” the size of the world, according to the documents. of the court published on Thursday.
But while 30-year-old Jareh Sebastian Dalke believes he is speaking to a representative of a particular country that “has many interests detrimental to the United States,” he is actually speaking to an FBI agent. secret, according to his arrest warrant. After initially sharing excerpts of classified documents and a full document this summer, Dalke was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly agreed to transmit more information using a secure connection that investigators established at Denver’s train station.
Dalke, who was charged with three counts of violating the Espionage Act, appeared in Denver federal court on Thursday. He is being represented by an attorney from the federal office of public defender, which does not comment publicly on their cases.
The arrest affidavit did not specify the country in which Dalke is believed to be providing information, but it does note that he speaks basic Spanish and Russian and that he has attempted to verify that real undercover agents working for foreign governments, not “Americans (sic) trying to strangle a patriot,” using a website for the Russian government’s foreign intelligence agency .
Dalke also requires representatives to verify their relationship with a foreign government by posting on an official website or through a report on one of their government-affiliated media services, sworn arrest said.
Dalke, a military veteran living in Colorado Springs, works for the NSA, the United States intelligence agency that collects and analyzes signals from domestic and foreign sources for intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. as an information systems security designer in less than a month. summer, according to the affidavit.
According to the arrest affidavit, Dalke, who has a degree related to cybersecurity, began communicating by encrypted email with the undercover agent at the end of July after the agent wrote to him saying that the agent was in charge. The service was told they should talk about “mutually beneficial items.” At one point, Dalke allegedly told the agent that his legacy was “tied with your country,” which is why. as to why he said he had “come to you and not others,” it said.
Documents he shared before his arrest included a threat assessment to a foreign government he believes he was helping, a plan to update a cryptographic program for a federal agency , threat assessments of sensitive U.S. defense capabilities, several of which involve the foreign government in question and one involving a “foreign government leader” that Identity or country was not described, according to the arrest affidavit.
According to the document, Dalke told an undercover agent that he owed $237,000. In 2017, he filed for bankruptcy because of student loans and credit card debts, it said. He allegedly told the undercover agent that providing classified information for payments was “an opportunity to help balance the size of the world while also taking care of my own needs.”
Elsewhere, Dalke said he didn’t think the United States was as great as it once thought, the affidavit said.
“It’s all about businesses and their money, not anything about the people or those who serve it including the military,” he said, according to the document.
The case is the latest indictment involving a government employee who allegedly attempted to pass on classified information to someone they thought was a foreign government representative. Jonathan Toebbe, a Navy nuclear engineer, was arrested along with his wife, Diana, in October 2021 on charges of attempting to sell submarine secrets to a foreign government. Both have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing.
——–
Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report from Washington.
