DENVER — A former National Security Agency employee who sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent he believed was a Russian official was sentenced Monday to nearly 22 years in prison, the sentence sought by prosecutors.
U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore said he could have put 32-year-old Jareh Sebastian Dalke behind bars even longer. He called the 262-month prison sentence “mercy” for what he saw as a calculated move to take the NSA job to sell national security secrets.
“This was egregious. It was brazen and, in my opinion, intentional. It was a betrayal, and it was as treacherous as it gets,” Moore said.
Dalke’s lawyers had asked that the Army veteran, who pleaded guilty last fall to espionage charges in a deal with prosecutors, be sentenced to 14 years in prison, in part because the information he sold in 2022 did not end up in enemy hands and ensure that damage.
Assistant federal public defender David Kraut also argued for a lighter sentence, saying Dalke suffered a traumatic brain injury, attempted suicide four times and experienced trauma as a child, including witnessing domestic violence and substance abuse. Research has shown that the type of childhood trauma increases the risk that people will engage in dangerous behavior later, he said.
Later, Dalke, who said he was “remorseful and ashamed,” told Moore he had also suffered from PTSD, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
He denied being motivated by ideology or making money by agreeing to sell the secrets. Dalke also suggested that he felt like he was actually communicating with police, but was attracted to the tension of what he was doing.
Moore said he was skeptical of Dalke’s claims about his condition as the defense provided no expert advice or hospital records.
According to court documents, Dalke, who had been with the NSA for about a month, told the undercover FBI agent that he wanted to “cause change” after questioning the role of the United States in causing harm to the world, but he also said he was $237,000 in debt. He also reportedly said that he decided to work with Russia because its heritage “can be traced back to your country.”
Dalke was initially paid $16,499 in cryptocurrency for excerpts of some documents he passed to the agent to show what he had, and then offered to sell the rest of the information he had for $85,000, according to the plea agreement. Prosecutors say $85,000 is about what he would have earned in a year at the NSA.
The agent instructed him to go to the train station in downtown Denver on September 28, 2022, and send the documents over a secure digital connection within a four-hour window. Dalke arrived with his laptop and first used the connection to send a thank-you letter that opened and closed in Russian and said he was “looking forward to our friendship and shared benefit,” according to the plea agreement. Moments after he used his laptop to transfer all the files, FBI agents arrested him.
According to his indictment, the information Dalke attempted to provide to Russia included a threat assessment of the military offensive capabilities of a third, unnamed country. It also includes a description of sensitive US defense capabilities, some of which involve that same foreign country.
Outside court, FBI Special Agent in Charge Mark Michalek said he could not provide details about what the documents contained, but he said Dalke knew the risk they posed.
“He knew that the disclosure of those documents would be expected to pose an exceptionally grave threat to the national security of the United States,” said Michalek, who was represented by U.S. Attorney for Colorado Cole Finegan.