Overview

• Tellis, 64, is charged under 18 U.S.C. § 793(e) with unlawful retention of national defense information and faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
• Federal agents executing an October 11 search found more than 1,000 pages marked top secret or secret at his Vienna, Virginia home in filing cabinets, on a desk, and in trash bags.
• An FBI affidavit cites video of Tellis on September 25 accessing State Department systems to print hundreds of pages, including from a 1,288-page Air Force tactics file he renamed “Econ Reform” and then deleted.
• Footage from a secure DoD site on October 10 allegedly shows him concealing papers, including top-secret material, inside notepads before placing them in a briefcase and leaving the facility.
• Court documents describe multiple meetings with Chinese government officials from 2022 to 2025, including a dinner where he arrived with a manila envelope, though the affidavit does not allege he provided classified information; he was ordered detained pending a hearing next week.