US arrests federal employee for trying to give foreign government classified information

An IT specialist who worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) of the US was arrested Thursday for allegedly trying to give national defense information to a foreign government, Report informs via DC News.

The US Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a news release that 28-year-old Nathan Vilas Laatsch of Alexandria had been communicating with an undercover FBI agent.

According to court documents, Laatsch (who started working for the DIA in 2019) was the subject of a tip saying that someone had “offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government.”

“In that email, the sender wrote that he did not ‘agree or align with the values of this administration’ and was therefore ‘willing to share classified information’ to which he had access, including ‘completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation,'” the USAO wrote.

Court documents said that Laatsch believed that an undercover FBI agent he contacted multiple times was an official with the foreign government.

According to the USAO, over around three days, Laatch “repeatedly” transcribed classified information at his desk before telling the agent he was ready to provide the information.

The FBI used a public park in Northern Virginia as the supposed drop-off site. On May 1, FBI surveillance saw Laatsch go to the park and leave behind a thumb drive that agents later found had a message from him and several typed documents that were marked as “Secret” or “Top Secret.”