Indian-origin US foreign policy expert Ashley Tellis arrested for keeping secret documents, meeting Chinese officials

Indian-origin Ashley Tellis, 64, a US foreign policy expert with access to top-secret information, has been arrested after accusations of illegally possessing classified national defence documents and reportedly meeting multiple times with Chinese government officials, according to court documents seen by Hindustan Times.

On 13 October, Ashley Tellis was formally charged in a Virginia district court with breaching federal laws related to the retention of national defence information, as per a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) criminal complaint and affidavit.

During a court-approved search on 11 October, federal investigators discovered over 1,000 pages of documents labelled ‘top secret’ or ‘secret’ at Ashley Tellis’s residence in Vienna, Virginia, according to an affidavit from an FBI special agent. The classified materials were found inside three large black trash bags stored in an unfinished storage area on a desk in locked filing cabinets in a basement office, the document mentions.

What the FBI affidavit says

Video surveillance on 25 September reportedly captured Tellis accessing classified computer systems at the State Department’s Harry S Truman Building, printing hundreds of pages from classified documents, comprising a 1,288-page file on US Air Force tactics. According to the affidavit, Tellis allegedly renamed this file “Econ Reform” prior to printing selected pages and deleting the file.

Footage from 10 October at a secure compartmented information facility at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, allegedly shows Tellis hiding classified documents, some marked top secret, inside notepads before placing them into his leather briefcase and leaving the facility, as stated in the court documents.

The affidavit also details several meetings between Tellis and Chinese government officials at restaurants in Fairfax, Virginia, between September 2022 and September 2025.

During one dinner on 15 September 2022, “Tellis entered the restaurant with a manila envelope,” which “did not appear” to be with him when he left, according to the document.

Conversations between Tellis and the Chinese officials were allegedly on Iranian-Chinese relations, emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, and US-Pakistan relations at later meetings. At a meeting in September 2025, Chinese officials reportedly presented Tellis with a red gift bag.

It added that Tellis was set to travel to Rome with his family on the evening of 11 October, the same day the search warrant was carried out, for a work-related trip. A return trip through Milan was planned for 27 October.

Who is Ashley Tellis?

Ashley Tellis, originally from Mumbai, completed his bachelor's and master's degrees from St Xavier’s College, University of Bombay, prior to earning a PhD in political science at the University of Chicago. He has held several prominent roles, including serving on the National Security Council as a special assistant to President George W Bush and as senior director for strategic planning and South-West Asia. He also previously worked as a senior adviser to the US ambassador in New Delhi.

He is regarded as one of America’s leading experts on India and played a significant role in the US-India civil nuclear agreement negotiations in the mid-2000s. Tellis is a naturalized US citizen who has advised the State Department since 2001, the report mentioned.

Holding a top secret security clearance with access to sensitive compartmented information, Tellis currently serves as an unpaid senior adviser at the State Department and works as a contractor for the Department of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment. He is regarded as a subject matter expert on India and South Asian affairs. In addition, Tellis is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The Carnegie Endowment didn't respond to HT's queries at the time of writing the report.