US-India expert who advised US administrations arrested over secret documents

Audio By Carbonatix

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A leading expert on U.S.-India relations who has advised successive U.S. administrations has been arrested and charged with unlawful retention of national defense information, including over a thousand pages of top secret and secret documents at his home, court documents showed.

Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the National Security Council of former Republican President George W. Bush and is listed in an FBI court affidavit as an unpaid adviser to the State Department and a Pentagon contractor, was arrested at the weekend and charged on Monday, the documents seen on Tuesday showed.

Tellis is also a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank.

A State Department official confirmed that Tellis was arrested on Saturday, but declined to comment further. A Pentagon official said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.

Carnegie did not immediately respond and Tellis could not immediately be reached. His lawyer was not listed in the court documents and was not immediately known.

Trump administration officials, including Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, have vowed to prosecute individuals who mishandle classified information.         

The FBI affidavit accompanying the charge document said that in September and October this year Tellis entered Defense and State Department buildings and was observed accessing and printing classified documents, including about military aircraft capabilities, and leaving by car with a leather briefcase or bag.

The affidavit said a search of Tellis’ residence in Vienna, Virginia, on Saturday uncovered over a thousand pages of classified documents with top secret and secret markings.

The affidavit also said Tellis had met Chinese government officials on multiple occasions over the past several years. The meetings included a September 15 dinner at a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, at which it said Tellis arrived with a manila envelope, which he did not appear to have when he left.

The affidavit said that due to his employment with the State Department and Pentagon Tellis possessed a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information.

A Justice Department statement said that if convicted, Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic,” said Lindsey Halligan, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens.”

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom, Andrew Goudsward and Simon Lewis; Editing by Don Durfee and Richard Chang)