Former NSA Employee Pleads Guilty to Attempting to Sell Classified Information to Russia

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, the former NSA employee, faces a possible life sentence for attempting to sell classified national defense information to an undercover FBI agent he believed was a Russian spy, and has agreed to a deal where prosecutors will request no more than 22 years in prison at his sentencing in April 2024.

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a 31-year-old U.S. Army veteran and former NSA employee, has pleaded guilty to six charges of attempting to transmit classified National Defense Information to Russia.
Dalke mistook an undercover FBI agent for a Russian spy and tried to sell them sensitive information, including a threat assessment related to the military offensive capabilities of an unspecified country.
The classified information also included details about U.S. defense capabilities, elements of a certain cryptographic program, and plans for updates to that program.
Dalke had requested $85,000 for all the information in his possession, explaining that he had serious financial debts and believed his heritage tied him to Russia.
Dalke only worked at the NSA briefly as an information systems security designer and attempted to share the classified information shortly after his resignation.

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice