Former NSA employee from Colo. sentenced to 21+ years for attempted espionage

A former National Security Agency employee was sentenced Monday to 262 months in prison for attempted espionage. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, of Colorado Springs was sentenced in connection with his efforts to transmit classified National Defense Information to an agent of the Russian Federation.

Dalke pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to transmit classified NDI to a foreign agent.

According to the Office of Public Affairs, from June 6 to July 1, 2022, Dalke was an employee of the NSA where he served as an Information Systems Security Designer.

Dalke admitted that between August and September of that year, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent in order to demonstrate his "legitimate access and willingness to share." Instead of a Russian agent, that person was an FBI online covert employee. The documents contained NDI and are classified as top secret/sensitive compartmented information and were obtained by Dalke during his employment with the NSA, according to the Office of Public Affairs.

According to the Office of Public Affairs, Dalke requested $85,000 in return for all the information in his possession on or about Aug. 26, 2022. He 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 DC area.

Dalke arranged to transfer additional classified information to his possession to the purported Russian agent at Union Station. Using a laptop computer and instructions from the FBI online covert employee, Dalke transferred five files, four which included top-secret NDI. The other file was a letter that began 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."

FBI agents arrested Dalke just moments after he transferred the files on Sept. 28, 2023

"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 in a statement. "This sentence demonstrates that 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."

"This sentence should serve as a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information that there are consequences to betraying that trust," said FBI Director Christopher Wray in a statement. "Dalke believed he was passing classified information to an agent of the Russian government. The hard work of our FBI employees prevented that from happening and any potential harm to the United States."

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 U.S. and to benefit Russia.