On former NSA agent was officially brought into custody in the wake of the feds stating that he had been attempting to sell classified government information to an undercover agent of the FBI that he believed to be a foreign entity.
Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 30 years old, out of Colorado Springs, Colorado, officially made his first appearance in the courtroom as of this past Thursday in the wake of being brought in for espionage-related charges for allegedly trying to send National Defense Information (NDI) to what he thought was an operative from Russia.
As reported by the Department of Justice, Dalke made use of a heavily encrypted email account to try and transmit a series of classified documents to a person he thought worked for the Russian foreign intelligence service.
“In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. Dalke subsequently arranged to transfer additional classified information in his possession to the undercover FBI agent at a location in Denver, Colorado,” explained the DOJ.
Dalke, who was originally an information systems security designer employed by the NSA this past June and July, was arrested this past Wednesday when he attempted to meet up what he thought was his contact to allegedly attempt to sell off all of the classified information.
Officials with the DOJ stated that Dalke explained to the undercover FBI agent that he was still employed by the agency and that he would be willing to continue to exchange secrets for a very specific cryptocurrency. The information in question was reportedly around the topic of the cyber security of the U.S.
“On or about Aug. 26, 2022, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for additional information in his possession. Dalke also told the FBI undercover agent that he would share additional information in the future, once he returned to the Washington, D.C., area. Although he was not employed by the NSA while communicating with the FBI, Dalke re-applied to the NSA in August 2022,” explained the DOJ.
Various documents from the court highlight that Dalke allegedly expressed to the undercover agent that he “recently learned that my heritage ties back to your country, which is part of why I have come to you.”
Additionally, he allegedly stated that he was willing to sell these secrets because he “questioned our role in damage to the world in the past and by mixture of curiosity for secrets and a desire to cause change.”
As expressed in the charges, one of the pieces of information that were slated for sale was officially classified as “secret,” while another two were marked as “top secret.” The man was officially slammed with a total of three violations of the Espionage Act.
