(LibertyInsider.org) – A former National Security Agency (NSA) employee convicted of selling secrets to an undercover FBI agent he believed was a Russian asset will spend over two decades behind bars for his crimes. US District Judge Raymond Moore sentenced Jareh Sebastian Dalke to a total of 262 months in prison on April 29.
Dalke’s defense team reportedly tried to argue for a lighter sentence, claiming that he suffered from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and a traumatic brain injury. They also argued that the trauma he suffered as a child led him down a dark path. Moore fully rejected these arguments, calling Dalke’s actions brazen and deliberate.
Ex-NSA employee sentenced to 21 years after selling classified documents to FBI agent posing as Russian agent https://t.co/9Ni1o8xgBv pic.twitter.com/e1s3tQ29T5
— New York Post (@nypost) April 30, 2024
“This was blatant,” the judge said. “It was a betrayal, and it was as close to treasonous as you can get,” Moore said.
Dalke’s path to this lengthy sentence began in August 2022, just over a month after the government recruited him to serve as an Information Systems Security Designer. For reasons that remain unclear, he abruptly contacted the alleged agent and offered to sell them classified information obtained during his one-month tenure with the NSA.
Unfortunately for Dalke, the person he was communicating with was actually an undercover FBI operative. The Bureau had reportedly grown suspicious about the new NSA hire and felt it necessary to test his willingness to disclose top-secret information in the months leading up to the sting. The operation allowed them to confirm those intentions and catch him in the act.
According to court documents, Dalke’s initial contact with the undercover agent began over an encrypted email system. In an apparent bid to demonstrate his “legitimate access and willingness to share,” he sent over excerpts from at least three top-secret documents in exchange for roughly $16,499 in cryptocurrency.
As their communications deepened, Dalke, who was reportedly $237,000 in debt, grew bolder. He proposed that the supposed “Russian agent” pay him $85,000 in cryptocurrency for all the remaining classified information in his possession.
The pair arranged to meet in person at Denver’s Union Station, where Dalke was instructed to transmit the files to the operative’s server upon arrival. The moment the exchange was complete, the FBI moved in and arrested him on six counts of attempting to transmit national defense information to a foreign agent.
Copyright 2024, LibertyInsider.org
