A former employee of the National Security Agency who thought that he was selling top secrets to the Russians was sentenced on Monday to nearly 22 years in prison, prosecutors said.
The former employee, Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, of Colorado Springs, was sentenced to 262 months, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado. He pleaded guilty last year to six counts of attempting to transmit classified national defense information to a foreign agent.
“This defendant, who had sworn an oath to defend our country, believed he was selling classified national security information to a Russian agent, when in fact, he was outing himself to the F.B.I.,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement.
Cole Finegan, the U.S. attorney for the District of Colorado, said Mr. Dalke’s sentence “reflects the seriousness of the actions he took in attempt to injure our country and help a foreign government.”
A lawyer representing Mr. Dalke did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
From June to July 2022, Mr. Dalke worked as an information systems security designer at the N.S.A. He held a secret clearance for his work with the U.S. Army since 2016 and was given a top security clearance when he started working at the agency, according to an affidavit filed by an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for his criminal complaint. He left his job, saying that a family illness required him to be away for nine months and stating that the N.S.A. had been unable to support his leave.
