Abraham Teklu Lemma, 53, of Maryland, pleaded guilty November 3 to conspiring to commit espionage for the government of Ethiopia, the Justice Department said. He was an information technology contractor at the National Reconnaissance Office, the State Department and the Justice Department. He pleaded guilty to one count, conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government, and agreed to serve between 120 and 262 months in prison.
Prosecutors say Lemma conspired with senior Ethiopian government officials from 2021 until his arrest in August 2023 to collect and transmit dozens of highly classified documents, notes, materials and photographs. The material was classified up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level, the Justice Department said. His conspirators included senior officials in the political, military and intelligence branches of the Ethiopian government, and much of what he shared concerned an armed conflict in Ethiopia.
The Justice Department described how he hid his work. Lemma wrote classified information out by hand and carried the notes out of secure government facilities. As an IT administrator, he also pulled electronic copies of classified information from government repositories and removed them from the secure buildings where he worked.
On some occasions, prosecutors say, Lemma urged his Ethiopian contacts to take direct action against paramilitary groups fighting the Ethiopian government. In 2021 he told one conspirator that they had to finish those people once and for all or there would never be peace in Ethiopia, according to the Justice Department. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said Lemma hoped the officials would use the information to target and kill paramilitary fighters, and the FBI's Roman Rozhavsky said Ethiopian officials used it in military operations during the conflict.
Sentencing is set for April 14, 2027. Edit USA reports the court will decide then whether to accept the plea agreement and its 120-to-262-month range. The FBI's Washington Field Office investigated, and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the National Security Division are handling the case.
