(WND News Center)—A government worker with a top security clearance who complained to an FBI agent posing as a representative of a foreign government that he didn’t “agree or align with the values” of the Trump administration has been arrested.
The suspect, Nathan Laatsch, 28, has worked with the Defense Intelligence Agency’s Insider Threat Division since 2019.
He was accused of attempting to share classified information with an agent of a foreign government, according to an announcement from the Department of Justice.
The case was launched when the FBI got a tip in March that someone was willing to turn over classified information to a friendly foreign regime.
“An email to the FBI said that the person – later identified as Laatsch – didn’t ‘agree or align with the values’ of the Trump administration, and would be willing to share classified information that he could access, including ‘completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation,’” according to a report from Fox News.
The report said Laatsch began communicating with an FBI agent, whom he thought was a foreign government representative, and confirmed he was ready to turn over classified details.
He brought information out of his workspace multiple times after transcribing the secrets onto a notepad at his desk, the DOJ said.
The FBI coordinated with Laatsch for him to deposit classified information “for the foreign government to retrieve” from a location at a northern Virginia park, the DOJ said, and FBI agents watched him do that.
The FBI then retrieved a thumb drive that contained a message from Laatsch and “multiple typed documents with information portion-marked for Secret or Top Secret levels,” the report said.
He offered that as “a decent sample size” of what he could do, the report said.
Laatsch later messaged the agent “appearing to say that he was seeking something in exchange” for the details, that he was interested in “citizenship for your country” as he didn’t think his situation in America would “improve in the long term,” the DOJ said.
He also was “not opposed to other compensation” but didn’t really need “material compensation.”
He then agreed to provide additional information and when he arrived at a meeting point, he was arrested.
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