Contractor With Top-Secret Security Clearance Arrested on Espionage Charges

A contractor for the U.S. government has been arrested on espionage charges, according to the Justice Department. Abraham Teklu Lemma, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Ethiopian descent with a top-secret security clearance, is accused of providing a foreign country with classified information that he downloaded and printed from his work computer system.

Court documents allege that Lemma illegally accessed numerous intelligence reports related to a single country and used his credentials to print or download secret and top secret classified records from those reports onto discs. He is also accused of using an encrypted messaging application to transmit maps, photographs and satellite imagery to the foreign government.

The Justice Department has not identified the country Lemma is accused of spying for, and a spokesman declined to comment. Lemma is believed to have been working for and accessing sensitive U.S. government records at the bidding of Ethiopia since at least last summer, according to two sources familiar with the investigation.

Lemma is currently being held in federal custody and is scheduled to appear in court for a detention hearing on Friday. If convicted, he could face up to 10 years in prison. The Justice Department is continuing to investigate the case.