A IT specialist used by the Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested Thursday and accused of trying to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government, the Department of Justice announced.
The FBI said that an investigation into Nathan Laatsch, 28, began in March, after receiving a tip that he offered to provide classified information to a foreign government because, according to the informant, LAATSCH did not agree or aligned with the values of this administration “and was willing to share” completed intelligence products, an unprocessed intelligence and another classified documentation. “
The foreign country Laatsch is accused of trying to contact is not identified in judicial documents.
A stamp is seen for the Department of Justice on a podium before a press conference in the building of the Department of Justice, March 21, 2024, in Washington, DC.
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In communications with an undercover agent with the FBI, who passes through an emissary of the foreign country, it is alleged that Laatsch transcribed classified information to a notebook in his desk for a three -day period that he told the agent who was ready to provide.
The video of the day installation where Laatsch worked showed him multiple pages of notes, which folded in squares and hid in his socks, according to a affidavit presented in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Another day employee saw Laatsch by placing multiple notebook pages at the bottom of its lunchbox, according to the affidavit.
The FBI then carried out an operation on May 1 in which Laatsch agreed to abandon the classified information through Thumb Drive in a place designated in a public park in northern Virginia, according to loading documents.
The unit supposedly contained designated information both in the levels of secret and high secret classification. Laatsch contacted the agent approximately one week later and said he was interested in citizens for the unidentified country because he did not “expect things here to improve in the long term.”
Laatsch later supposedly tried to prepare classified information to provide the agent and in an early operation on Thursday, came to a place in northern Virginia, where he was arrested.
LAATSCH arrest occurs in the middle of a broader concern among current and previous intelligence officials that people with access to classified high -value information can use the current moment of disorder and dismay in the Intel community to try to sell information to foreign governments for profit.
Laatsch, who was hired by the Defense Intelligence Agency in August 2019, recently worked as a data scientist and IT specialist for information security in the agency’s threat division, according to judicial documents.
Online judicial records do not yet list a lawyer for Laatsch.
