Court Dismisses Ashley Tellis Espionage Case On Technical Grounds
WASHINGTON, DC- A federal judge in Virginia has dismissed without prejudice an Espionage Act case against strategic affairs scholar Ashley J. Tellis, ruling in favor of a defense argument that prosecutors used the wrong statutory provision to charge him with unlawful retention of classified documents.
This means that the prosecutors, if they wish, could bring charges again.
US District Judge Michael S. Nachmanoff granted Tellis’ motion to dismiss on April 16 after hearing arguments from both sides in Alexandria. The court order stated that the motion was “granted” and that the case was “dismissed without prejudice.”
Tellis, a strategic affairs expert known for his work on international security and US foreign policy, had been charged under Section 793(e) of the Espionage Act with willful retention of national defense information.
Prosecutors alleged that Tellis removed and stored classified documents at his residence while serving in senior roles linked to the US State Department and the Department of War.
The superseding indictment accused Tellis of retaining 11 classified documents containing national defense information. According to the indictment, he “exploited his access to classified information related to the national defense by secreting NDI from his secure workplaces and storing said NDI at his personal residence in hard copy and digital form.”
However, Tellis’ legal team argued that prosecutors had charged him under the wrong subsection of the Espionage Act.
The defense argued that Tellis “was entrusted with the relevant documents” and therefore could not legally be charged under the subsection cited by prosecutors.
His lawyers also noted that the government had not accused him of disseminating classified information or accessing files beyond his authorized clearance.
The filing stated that prosecutors could have pursued other statutes, including Section 793(d) or Section 1924, which deals with unauthorized removal and retention of classified material by government employees, but had “deliberately chose to limit its indictment to the wrong provision.”
Federal prosecutors had earlier opposed efforts to relax Tellis’ bail conditions, arguing that he remained both a flight risk and a danger to national security because he allegedly possessed “tens of thousands of pages of classified material, including over 1,000 pages of hard-copy top secret material.”
The government also alleged that some of the material involved information related to China’s nuclear and military capabilities and claimed Tellis retained “decades’ worth of sensitive national defense information in his head.”
Following the dismissal order, Tellis filed an unopposed motion seeking release of his secured bond, which prosecutors did not contest. A separate court order later directed the government to respond to Tellis’ request for the return of property seized during the investigation. (IANS)
