For years, the federal government investigated former President Donald Trump over his alleged ties to Russia. As it turns out, the federal government is the one working with Russia, with a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee recently pleading guilty to selling classified national defense information to an FBI employee, believed to be an agent of the Kremlin.
Jarek Sebastian Dalke, 31, faces life behind bars after recently pleading guilty to six counts of attempting to transmit classified National Defense Information (NDI) to an officer or agent of a foreign government, as reported by the Department of Justice (DOJ).
Dalke was able to obtain a plea agreement prohibiting his potential sentence from exceeding 22 years. Yet, U.S. officials said the judge presiding over his case will ultimately determine his sentence.
Dalke is said to have admitted his guilt during a hearing before U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore, as reported by the Daily Wire. During the hearing, the former NSA employee admitted he had been taking medication to treat his mental illness since 2022.
Dalke’s time at the NSA consisted of his efforts to gather and analyze classified intelligence and counterintelligence from a variety of sources.
As an employee at the agency, Dalke is said to have possessed three documents with a Top/Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance. These documents were among those Dalk planned to hand the alleged Russian spy.
“Dalke admitted that between August and September 2022, in order to demonstrate both his ‘legitimate access and willingness to share,’ he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent,” DOJ officials said in a news release. “In actuality, that person was an FBI online covert employee.”
Former NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Attempted Espionage
Defendant Admits to Attempting to Transmit National Defense Information to an Agent of a Foreign Governmenthttps://t.co/hVjsVSX8Iz
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) October 23, 2023
In August 2022, Dalke reportedly requested $85,000 from the Russian agent in exchange for the three highly classified documents. A month later, the former NSA employee was taken into custody at Union Station in downtown Denver, Colorado, after sending five classified files through a laptop to the covert FBI employee, according to the Daily Wire.
One such file Dalke sent to the FBI employee read, “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.”
