Colorado Springs man sentenced to 21+ years in prison for attempted espionage
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) - A Colorado Springs man, who is a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee, has been sentenced to more than 21 years in prison for attempted espionage for his efforts to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an agent of the Russian Federation, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
32-year-old Jareh Sebastian Dalke, an Army veteran, pleaded guilty in 2023 to six counts of attempting to transmit classified NDI to a foreign agent.
“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 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.”
According to the DOJ, 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.
The DOJ said that 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.
The agency said Dalke then 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. According to the DOJ, 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.
