Denver, Colorado. –
A former U.S. National Security Agency employee who sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent he believed was a Russian official was sentenced Monday to nearly 22 years in prison, the sentence sought by government prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore said he could have put Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, behind bars longer, calling the 262-month sentence “mercy” for what he called a calculated move to take the job. at the NSA in order to be able to sell national security secrets.
“This was blatant. He was brazen and, in my opinion, deliberate. “It was a betrayal, and it was as close to a betrayal as you can imagine,” Moore said.
Dalke’s lawyers had asked that the Army veteran, who pleaded guilty to espionage charges last fall in a deal with prosecutors, be sentenced to 14 years in prison, in part because the information did not end up in enemy hands and caused damage. Assistant Federal Public Defender David Kraut also argued for a lighter sentence because he said Dalke had suffered a traumatic brain injury, had attempted suicide four times and had experienced trauma as a child, including witnessing domestic violence and child abuse. substances. Research has shown that that type of childhood trauma increases the risk that people will later engage in dangerous behavior, he said.
Later, Dalke, who said he was “remorseful and ashamed,” told Moore that he had also suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
He denied being motivated by ideology or making money by agreeing to sell the secrets. Dalke also suggested that he had the idea that he was actually communicating with authorities, but that he was attracted to the excitement of what he was doing.
But Moore said he was skeptical of Dalke’s claims about his conditions, since the defense did not provide any expert opinions or hospital records.
According to court documents, Dalke, who worked at the NSA for about a month, told the undercover FBI agent that he wanted to “bring about change” after questioning the United States’ role in causing harm to the world, but also said he was 237,000 dollars of debt. He also allegedly said that he had decided to work with Russia because his heritage “ties back to his country.”
Dalke was initially paid $16,499 in cryptocurrency for excerpts of some documents he passed to the agent to show what he had, and then offered to sell the rest of the information he had for $85,000, according to the plea agreement. .
The agent instructed him to go to the downtown Denver train station on September 28, 2022, and submit the documents using a secure digital connection over a four-hour period. Dalke arrived with his laptop and first used the connection to send a thank-you letter that was opened and closed in Russian and in which he said he looked forward to “our friendship and shared benefit,” according to the plea agreement. Moments after he used his laptop to transfer all the files, FBI agents arrested him.
According to the indictment, the information Dalke intended to give to Russia included a threat assessment of the military offensive capabilities of an unidentified third country. It also includes a description of sensitive US defense capabilities, some of which relate to that same foreign country.