A former National Security Agency employee who sold classified information to an undercover FBI agent he thought was a Russian official was sentenced to nearly 22 years in prison, the penalty requested by prosecutors. U.S. District Judge Raymond Moore called the 262-month sentence "mercy" for the calculated action of Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 32, to take an NSA job to sell national security secrets, reports the Associated Press. “This was blatant. It was brazen and, in my mind, it was deliberate. It was a betrayal, and it was as close to treasonous as you can get,” Moore said. Dalke’s attorneys had asked for the Army veteran, who pleaded guilty last fall in a deal with prosecutors, to be sentenced to 14 years, saying the information he sold in 2022 did not end up in enemy hands.
Public defender David Kraut said Dalke had suffered a traumatic brain injury, had attempted suicide four times, and had experienced trauma as a child, including witnessing domestic violence and substance abuse. Dalke, who said he was “remorseful and ashamed”, told Moore he had also suffered PTSD, bipolar disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Dalke, who worked at the NSA for a month, told the undercover FBI agent he wanted to “cause change” after questioning the U.S. role in causing damage to the world, but he also said he was $237,000 in debt. Dalke was initially paid $16,499 in cryptocurrency for excerpts of documents that he passed on to the agent to show what he had, and then he offered to sell the rest of the information for $85,000.