A former US National Security Agency techie has plead guilty to six counts of violating the Espionage Act after being caught handing classified information to FBI agents he thought were Russian spies.  Jareh Sebastian Dalke will be facing up to life in prison when sentenced in April 2024, though in his plea agreement [PDF] the government agreed to seek a sentence no greater than 262 months (just shy of 22 years) “if the government determines [Dalke] has cooperated fully … and the information [he] has provided has been truthful, complete, accurate and of value.”  Dalke, 31, admitted that he transmitted excerpts from three classified documents, and sent four in their entirety, to an FBI online covert employee (OCE), all of which contained national defense information determined [PDF] to be classified top secret.  A former US Army soldier, Dalke was employed at the NSA as an information security systems designer for less than a month, and resigned after the NSA denied his request for extended leave to take care of a sick family member. Dalke’s initial communications with his “Russian contact”

Source: The Register