US contractor charged with giving classified information to Ethiopia

Clara Resources Australia

21/09/2023 22:35

By Kanishka Singh
       WASHINGTON, Sept 21 (Reuters) - A U.S. government
contract employee for the Justice and State Departments was
arrested on espionage charges unsealed on Thursday, prosecutors
said, accusing him of passing on classified information to
Ethiopia.
    Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, was charged in a complaint from
late August, which was unsealed on Thursday, the U.S. Justice
Department said in a statement.
    He faced three charges including "delivering national
defense information to aid a foreign government, conspiracy to
deliver national defense information to aid a foreign
government, and the willful retention of national defense
information," the Justice Department said.
    Prosecutors did not name Ethiopia but said Lemma spied for a
country where he had family ties and where he was previously a
citizen. The Justice Department did describe Lemma as a
"naturalized U.S. citizen of Ethiopian descent." 
    A representative of Lemma could not immediately be reached.
    Between December 2022, and August 2023, Lemma copied
classified information from intelligence reports and deleted the
classification markings from them, the Justice Department said.
    Lemma then removed the information, which was classified as
'secret' and 'top secret,' from secure facilities at the State
Department. He accessed, copied, removed and retained this
information without authorization, prosecutors said.
    Lemma used an encrypted application to transmit classified
national defense information to a foreign government official
associated with a foreign country's intelligence service, the
Justice Department said.
    The two espionage charges carry a potential penalty of death
or any term of years up to life in prison, and the willful
retention charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in
prison.
    The U.S. State Department said on Thursday it had undertaken
a "self-initiated 60-day internal security review" in which it
was uncovered that its contractor "may have removed, retained
and transmitted classified national defense information without
authorization."
    That review happened after the April arrest of an airman,
Jack Douglas Teixeira, who was later indicted on accusations of
posting classified documents on the messaging app Discord.
    

 (Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Washington; Editing by Richard
Chang)
 ((Kanishka.Singh@thomsonreuters.com; +12024508248;))