Overview

• Federal prosecutors say Ashley Tellis sold U.S. classified documents to Chinese officials multiple times over several years.
• A search of his Vienna, Virginia residence recovered more than a thousand pages marked Top Secret or Secret, according to court filings.
• Filings detail in-person contacts with Chinese officials in September 2022, April 11, 2023, and September 2, including a dinner discussion of Iranian–Chinese relations and emerging technologies.
• Tellis held a top-secret clearance as a Defense Department Office of Net Assessment contractor and served as a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment.
• Reporting cites directives to print classified files on September 12 and later Air Force documents on aircraft capabilities, with the case proceeding as an active federal investigation.