A cyber specialist who briefly worked at the top-secret U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to spy for Russia, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, spent less than four weeks working at the NSA, the United States government’s intelligence gathering agency, before he suddenly quit at the end of June last year, citing family problems.
In the few weeks he was at the NSA, he printed out top secret documents, and after leaving he offered them for sale in encrypted online communications to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent, the Justice Department said.
Dalke was actually dealing with an undercover FBI agent.
The former cyber specialist pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to six counts of attempting to transmit classified national defense information to an agent of a foreign government.
Sentencing was set for April 26, 2024. Dalke faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
