State Department and DoJ worker charged with espionage for allegedly sharing classified information with foreign intelligence official
[Blaze] A worker with the State Department and Justice Department was charged with espionage after allegedly sharing classified information with an intelligence official, according to a Thursday press release from the Justice Department.
Abraham Teklu Lemma, a 50-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen of Ethiopian descent and residing in Maryland, worked as an IT administrator for the Department of State and a management analyst for the Department of Justice.
According to the DOJ, as part of Lemma’s work with the federal government, he was granted top-secret security clearance and access to classified systems. Between December 2022 and August 2023, Lemma allegedly "copied classified information from Intelligence Reports and deleted the classification markings from them," the agency reported.
"Lemma then removed the information, which was classified as SECRET and TOP SECRET, from secure facilities at the Department of State against protocol. The materials related to a specific country and/or geographic region. Lemma accessed, copied, removed, and retained this information without authorization," the DOJ explained.
Court papers do not identify the country Lemma is accused of spying for, and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. But the documents do refer to travel back and forth over the past year and a half to a country where he has family ties.
The New York Times, which first reported the arrest, identified Ethiopia as the country for which Lemma is alleged to have spied.
Posted by: Besoeker 2023-09-23 |