US government contractor who spied for Ethiopia has been arrested

An American government contractor has been arrested on charges of spying for Ethiopia while working for the State and Justice departments. On August 24, 2018, US citizen Abraham Teklu Lemma, 50, of Ethiopian heritage, was detained and charged with transmitting national defense secrets to a foreign government, according to the Justice Department.

On Friday, the criminal complaint against Lemma, a resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, who is listed on LinkedIn as an IT systems and data analyst, was made public. The Justice Department did not identify the country Lemma was allegedly spying for in its statement announcing his detention, but the New York Times and other US media sources did.

In order to fund his spying activities, Lemma allegedly deposited tens of thousands of dollars into bank accounts in the Washington area between December 2022 and August 2023, as detailed in an affidavit filed by an FBI agent. Lemma allegedly used an encrypted messaging channel to provide secret and top secret information from dozens of State Department intelligence reports to a "official associated with a foreign country's intelligence service."

Documents, photos, notes, and maps were all provided, all of which pertained to the "Relevant Country" referenced in the affidavit. According to the affidavit, in September 2022, the foreign official told Lemma, "It's time to continue (your) support," and Lemma responded, "Roger that!"

"Lemma's communications with the Foreign official included discussing the military activities of a rebel group involved in an armed struggle against the government of the Relevant Country," it stated, apparently referring to the Tigray conflict. Lemma has worked as a contract management analyst for both the Justice Department and the State Department, and she has had a top-secret security clearance since the year 2020.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Ethiopia in March, and the country is a key recipient of US aid. Two counts of espionage and one count of improper retention of national defense information have been filed against Lemma. The maximum sentence for the retention charge is 10 years, while the espionage charge entails the possibility of the death penalty.

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