FBI arrests federal employee for alleged unlawful retention of national defense information

The Justice Department on Tuesday announced that a federal employee was arrested earlier this month for alleged unlawful retention of classified national defense information.

Ashley Tellis, 64, was arrested by the FBI on Oct. 11 after he allegedly removed over a thousand pages of classified national defense information from government facilities and stored them in the basement of his home in Vienna, Virginia.

Tellis allegedly had a Top Secret security clearance with Sensitive Compartmented Information access and worked for the State Department. He also worked as a contractor for the Department of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment.

“U.S. government security clearance holders are entrusted to keep our nation’s most sensitive secrets safe,” Assistant Director in Charge Darren B. Cox of the FBI Washington Field Office said. “By allegedly removing classified documents from government facilities and storing them in his basement, Mr. Tellis betrayed that trust. 

"The FBI and our federal partners acted quickly to execute a court-authorized search warrant and arrest Tellis to protect our national security and prevent highly classified defense information from falling into the wrong hands," he added.

Tellis allegedly stole the documents from both State and Defense Department facilities. In one case, he allegedly altered the filename of a classified document, printed portions of it under the changed title, and then deleted the re-named file.

He was also allegedly observed placing classified materials into a notepad and hiding them in his personal briefcase before leaving a secured government facility.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.