Former NSA employee from Colorado sentenced to 21+ years for attempted espionage

A former National Security Agency employee was sentenced Monday to 262 months in prison for attempted espionage. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, of Colorado Springs was sentenced in connection with his efforts to transmit classified National Defense Information to an agent of the Russian Federation.

Dalke pleaded guilty to six counts of attempting to transmit classified NDI to a foreign agent.

According to the Office of Public Affairs, from June 6 to July 1, 2022, Dalke was an employee of the NSA where he served as an Information Systems Security Designer.

Dalke admitted that between August and September of that year, he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent in order to demonstrate his “legitimate access and willingness to share.” Instead of a Russian agent, that person was an FBI online covert employee. The documents contained NDI and are classified as top secret/sensitive compartmented information and were obtained by Dalke during his employment with the NSA, according to the Office of Public Affairs.

Read more: CBS News