Unlawful Retention, National Defense Information Tuesday, Share Facebook — Government Employee Arrested for Unlawful Retention of National Defense Information | United States Justice Department.
Tellis appeared today in the Eastern District of Virginia for a detention hearing.“Safeguarding our country’s national defense information is a top priority,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Sue J. Bai of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “For those entrusted with our country’s most sensitive information, protecting it is a privilege and solemn responsibility. With the hard work and dedication of our prosecutors and agents, we will hold this defendant accountable for breaching that trust and exploiting his security clearance to unlawfully retain classified information detailing our military capabilities.”“The FBI arrested Ashley
Tellis, a senior advisor at the Department of State and a contractor within the Department of Defense, for allegedly removing over a thousand pages of classified national defense information from government facilities and storing them in his home,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. The FBI and our partners will do everything within our power to find you and hold you accountable.”“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to
the safety and security of our citizens,” said U.S. government security clearance holders are entrusted to keep our nation’s most sensitive secrets safe,” said Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Attorney Seth Schlessinger for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Leslie Esbrook of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.A criminal complaint is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. Updated October 21, 2025 Topics Counterintelligence National Security Components Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National