Ashley Tellis removed over 1000 pages of classified US govt information, stored them in home: FBI tells court

US State Department employee Ashley Tellis, who was arrested for illegally keeping more than 1,000 pages of classified documents at his Northern Virginia home, appeared before a court on Tuesday, October 21, for a detention hearing.

Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division said, “The FBI arrested Ashley Tellis, a senior advisor at the Department of State and a contractor within the Department of Defence, for allegedly removing over a thousand pages of classified national defence information from government facilities and storing them in his home."

Meanwhile, Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Cox of the FBI Washington Field Office said Tellis betrayed the trust "by allegedly removing classified documents from government facilities and storing them in his basement."

He said the FBI and our federal partners acted quickly to execute a court-authorised search warrant and arrest Tellis to "protect our national security and prevent highly classified defense information from falling into the wrong hands.”

“This arrest should serve as a stark warning to anyone thinking about undermining national security. The FBI and our partners will do everything within our power to find you and hold you accountable,” Rozhavsky said.

Meanwhile, US Attorney Halligan for the Eastern District of Virginia said, “We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens.”

Why was he arrested?

As per a White House press release, Tellis had allegedly accessed classified documents on multiple occasions from secured facilities, including a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) at the Department of Defense and a secure computer system at the Department of State.

In one instance, Tellis altered the filename of a classified document, printed portions of it under the altered title, and then deleted the renamed file, the White House document read.

"In another incident, he was observed placing classified materials into a notepad and concealing them within his personal briefcase before leaving a secured government facility," it added.

During a search of Tellis’s residence, investigators recovered over 1,000 pages of documents with classification markings, including materials labeled SECRET and/or TOP SECRET.

These documents were found in locked filing cabinets, in a basement home office, and in trash bags stored in a basement utility area.

The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case, with valuable assistance from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service.

Assistant US Attorney Seth Schlessinger for the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney Leslie Esbrook of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

Who was Tellis?

Tellis is a former White House National Security Council staffer and current State Department adviser. In his role at the Office of Net Assessment, he was considered a subject-matter expert on India and South Asian affairs.

According to court documents, Tellis held a Top Secret security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) access.

He has worked for the US Department of State since 2001 and currently serves in addition as a contractor for the Department of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment.

He also serves as a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.