Former National Security Agency employee sentenced to prison for espionage

Jareh Sebastian Dalke on Monday received more than 21 years in federal prison, according to a statement by the Justice Department. The Justice Department indicted him in October 2022 on several charges of attempting to transmit classified information to a Russian agent. Dalke pleaded guilty to the charges in October 2023. As a federal intelligence agency the NSA collects and analyzes signals from foreign and domestic sources, and defends U.S. signals and codes from intrusion.

What happened? Dalke resigned from the NSA in June 2022. Afterward, he began communicating with an individual he believed to be a Russian agent but was, in fact, a covert agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Dalke told the agent he had come to question the goodness of the U.S. government. He said he had information pertaining to U.S. cyber operations and systems targeting foreign operatives. Dalke requested a total of roughly $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency in exchange for all the information he had, which he later transferred to the FBI agent while he was at Union Station in Denver, Colo. Federal authorities arrested him moments after the files were transferred to the FBI agent, according to the Justice Department.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report in The Stew about how the Pentagon is trying to make secrets safer.