Indian-origin foreign policy strategist Ashley Tellis, a prominent voice on US-India relations and a senior adviser at the State Department, has been charged with the unlawful retention of national defence information.
US federal agents found more than a thousand pages of classified documents at his home in Virginia, the US Justice Department said.
Tellis, 64, a naturalised US citizen who grew up in Mumbai, was arrested over the weekend and ordered detained pending a hearing next week.
The FBI affidavit accompanying the charges said agents recovered documents marked secret and top secret from filing cabinets and trash bags at his residence in Vienna, Virginia.
Charges against Tellis
According to the affidavit, Tellis repeatedly printed or asked colleagues to print classified materials on US military capabilities while serving as an unpaid adviser at the State Department and a contractor in the Defence Department’s Office of Net Assessment.
Surveillance footage showed him leaving government facilities carrying a briefcase believed to contain the printed records.
Late in the evening of September 25, Tellis entered the State Department and appeared to print from a classified document on US Air Force techniques, the affidavit said.
Logs showed he accessed the department’s classified “Classnet” system, re-saved a 1,200-page file under a misleading name, and printed sections of it before deleting the document.
Meetings with Chinese officials
Investigators said Tellis met several times with Chinese government officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.
At one dinner, Tellis arrived with a manila envelope but did not appear to leave with it, while on two occasions the Chinese officials handed him a gift bag, according to the affidavit.
The FBI said there is no evidence that Tellis provided classified information to foreign officials, but noted that the meetings coincided with his unauthorised access to secret files.
What happens next
If convicted, Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Tellis’s attorney, Deborah Curtis, said they “look forward to the hearing, where we’ll be able to present evidence,” but declined further comment.
A well-known scholar on Indian and South Asian affairs, Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and previously served on the National Security Council under former president George W. Bush, where he helped negotiate the landmark US-India civil nuclear deal.
In recent years, Tellis has been regarded as one of Washington’s most influential and often contrarian voices on India policy, cautioning that New Delhi’s ties with Russia and Iran could complicate US strategic goals.
In recent interviews, he had commented on US President Donald Trump’s policy towards India. The relations between the two countries have nosedived since May, when Pakistan and India fired rockets and missiles at each other.
Pakistan said it shot down six Indian jets, including advanced Rafales, during the skirmish. On multiple occasions, Trump insisted that it was he who brokered a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbours – something that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi denies.
The State Department confirmed his arrest and said it is cooperating with investigators, but declined further comment due to the ongoing case.
