2LT International News

WASHINGTON, D.C.: This week, former National Security Agency (NSA) employee Jareh Sebastian Dalke, who sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent he believed to be a Russian official, was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore said the 262-month sentence “mercy” for what he saw as a calculated action to take the job at the NSA to be able to sell national security secrets.

He also stressed that he could have put Army veteran, Dalke, 32, who pleaded guilty to espionage charges in a deal with prosecutors, behind bars for even longer.

“This was blatant, it was brazen and, in my mind, it was deliberate. It was a betrayal, and it was as close to treasonous as you can get,” Moore said.

Dalke’s attorneys had asked for him to be sentenced to 14 years in prison, as the information he sold in 2022 did not end up in enemy hands and cause damage.

Assistant federal public defender David Kraut also called for a lighter sentence because Dalke had suffered a traumatic brain injury, had attempted suicide four times, and had experienced trauma as a child.

Dalke said he was “remorseful and ashamed,” and told Moore he also suffered from PTSD, bipolar disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, and denied being motivated by ideology or earning money by agreeing to sell the secrets.

However, Moore stressed that he was skeptical of Dalke’s claims about his conditions since the defense did not provide any expert opinions or hospital records.

According to court documents, Dalke, who worked at the NSA for about a month, told the undercover FBI agent that he wanted to “cause change” after questioning the role of the U.S. in damaging to the world.

He also said that he was US$237,000 in debt and decided to work with Russia because his heritage “ties back to your country.”

According to the plea deal, Dalke was initially paid $16,499 in cryptocurrency for some documents, and he offered to sell more information he had for $85,000.

Prosecutors said he would have earned $85,000 at the NSA in a year.