Ashley Tellis Arrested Over National Defense Information in Virginia

Ashley Tellis, a 64-year-old U.S. national security scholar and longtime government adviser, was arrested after investigators found more than 1,000 pages of classified material at his Vienna, Virginia, home and said he had repeatedly met with Chinese government officials, according to court filings. Federal authorities executed a court-approved search on October 11 and an affidavit unsealed October 13 said the documents included files marked Top Secret and Secret and were recovered from locked cabinets, a basement office and three large trash bags.

Prosecutors charged Tellis with unlawful retention of national defense information in violation of 18 U.S.C. 793(e). The FBI and the Justice Department’s National Security Division are leading the investigation, and the case has been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan said the office is focused on protecting the public from threats and described the alleged conduct as posing a grave risk to national safety and security.

Court documents and an FBI affidavit describe surveillance footage and witness accounts that investigators say tie Tellis to the mishandling of...