US government contractor arrested on espionage charges

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From Twitter feed of Newsmax reporter Logan Ratick:

https://twitter.com/Logan_Ratick/status/1704944586886439180

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U.S. contractor originally from Ethiopia arrested on espionage charges, Justice Department says
 By Eric Tucker - Associated Press - Thursday, September 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — A contractor for the U.S. government has been arrested on espionage charges, accused of providing a foreign country classified information that he downloaded and printed from his work computer system, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, who is originally from Ethiopia, had a top secret security clearance and access to classified information through contracting positions with the departments of State and Justice.

He is accused of using an encrypted messaging application to transmit maps, photographs and satellite imagery to the foreign government, according to court documents.

Court papers do not identify the country Lemma is accused of spying for, and a Justice Department spokesman declined to comment. But the documents do refer to travel back and forth over the past year and a half to a country where he has family ties.

The New York Times, which first reported the arrest, identified Ethiopia as the country for which Lemma is alleged to have spied. ...

Washington Times

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State Department worker charged with espionage for allegedly sharing classified information with foreign intelligence official
Candace Hathaway
September 22, 2023

A worker with the State Department and Justice Department was charged with espionage after allegedly sharing classified information with an intelligence official, according to a Thursday press release from the Justice Department.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, a 50-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen of Ethiopian descent and residing in Maryland, worked as an IT administrator for the Department of State and a management analyst for the Department of Justice.

According to the DOJ, as part of Lemma’s work with the federal government, he was granted top-secret security clearance and access to classified systems. Between December 2022 and August 2023, Lemma allegedly “copied classified information from Intelligence Reports and deleted the classification markings from them,” the agency reported. ... The Blaze