A former National Security Agency employee from Colorado pleaded guilty Monday to trying to sell classified information to Russia.
Federal prosecutors agreed to not ask for more than about 22 years in prison for Jareh Sebastian Dalke when he is sentenced in April, but the judge will ultimately decide the punishment.
Dalke, a 31-year-old Army veteran from Colorado Springs, had faced a possible life sentence for giving the information to an undercover FBI agent who prosecutors say Dalke believed was a Russian agent.
Dalke was arrested on Sept. 28, 2022, after authorities say he arrived at Denver’s downtown train station with a laptop and used a secure connection set up by investigators to transfer some classified documents.
According to the indictment, the information Dalke sought to give Russia included a threat assessment of the military offensive capabilities of a third, unnamed country. It also includes a description of sensitive U.S. defense capabilities, some of which relates to that same foreign country. He allegedly told the undercover agent that he had $237,000 in debts and that he decided to work with Russia because his heritage “ties back to your country.”
Having agents posing as foreign contacts asking to sell data seems like a very effective way to deter espionage. You're not just catching the people who are willing, but you are making anyone else very nervous about who they are actually taking to, whether they're actually another undercover agent.