A person who labored as a Pentagon contractor and State Department adviser has been charged with removing classified information from a authorities facility after investigators discovered over a thousand paperwork with classified markings at his home in Virginia.
Some of the paperwork that Ashley Tellis, an knowledgeable in South Asian affairs, allegedly accessed and eliminated confer with Air Force ways and methods, based on courtroom data.
Tellis allegedly met quite a few instances with Chinese authorities officers over the past a number of years, says an FBI affidavit made public on Tuesday. In April 2023, Tellis had dinner with Chinese authorities officers in a Washington, DC, suburb and “could be occasionally overheard talking about Iranian-Chinese relations and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence,” an FBI agent wrote within the affidavit.
Tellis is an unpaid adviser on the State Department and a contractor on the Office of Net Assessment (ONA), based on the affidavit. ONA is the Pentagon’s in-house suppose tank for anticipating safety threats that the Defense Department stated in March could be dismantled and “restructured.”
It was not instantly clear from the affidavit what information, if any, Tellis allegedly handed to the Chinese authorities officers. NCS has requested remark from the Eastern District of Virginia, the place Tellis was charged.
Tellis didn’t instantly reply to an e mail in search of remark. An legal professional for Tellis couldn’t be reached for remark. Born in India, Tellis is a naturalized US citizen, based on the courtroom paperwork, and is listed as a senior fellow on the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a outstanding US suppose tank, for which he printed evaluation as lately as final week.
Lindsey Halligan, the Trump-appointed US legal professional for the Eastern District of Virginia, approved the search and the costs in opposition to Tellis, a supply acquainted with the matter instructed NCS. “The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” Halligan stated in an announcement.
NCS has requested remark from the State Department and Pentagon on the costs in opposition to Tellis. NCS additionally reached out to the Chinese embassy in Washington, DC on the suggestion he met with Chinese officers.
China is one of the highest counterintelligence threats to US nationwide safety secrets and techniques, based on American officers and personal consultants. A US Navy sailor, Jinchao Wei, was convicted of espionage in August after agreeing to promote Navy secrets and techniques to a Chinese intelligence officer for $12,000, the Justice Department stated then.
NCS’s Kristen Holmes and Jennifer Hansler contributed reporting.