An Indian-born policy adviser and respected Asia expert was arrested over the weekend for unlawfully possessing more than a thousand pages of classified information marked as “top secret” and “secret,” according to federal prosecutors.
Ashley J. Tellis, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and an unpaid adviser at the State Department, was charged with unlawfully retaining national defense information and meeting with officials from the People’s Republic of China on multiple occasions. The Justice Department announced Tellis’s arrest on Tuesday, describing the allegations as a serious breach of national security.
“The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan of the Eastern District of Virginia, an appointee of President Donald Trump. “The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
According to a 10-page affidavit, Tellis also worked as a contractor for the Department of War’s Office of Net Assessment and held a top-secret security clearance dating back to his first role at the State Department in 2001, during former President George W. Bush’s administration.
When FBI agents searched his Vienna, Virginia, home on Oct. 11, they found more than 1,000 pages of highly classified material, including documents related to Air Force capabilities. Tellis was previously a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and has published research papers about India’s nuclear posture.
The documents were found in a variety of locations, including locked drawers and cabinets, as well as some in “three large black trash bags” located in an unfinished storage room in the basement, authorities said.
Federal prosecutors alleged Tellis met with Chinese Communist Party-aligned officials several times in recent years. During a recent meeting on Sept. 2, court documents said he received a “red gift bag” from PRC officials in Fairfax, though it remains unclear what information may have been exchanged. He was previously scheduled for foreign travel to Italy just before his arrest, and was slated to return on or around Oct. 27.
Tellis, who published foreign-policy analysis for Carnegie as recently as last week, has since been placed on administrative leave, the Washington Examiner confirmed.
“We are aware of the allegations against Ashley J. Tellis. He is now on administrative leave, including from his role as Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs,” said Katelynn Vogt, the Carnegie Endowment’s vice president for communications.
Tellis was also listed as a senior adviser at the Asia Group, a Washington, D.C.,-based consulting firm that helps corporations expand into the Asia-Pacific market. His online profile appears to have been removed from the group’s website following his arrest. An archived version of the biographical page says that Tellis has ties to the United States Naval Institute and wrote articles about “China’s Grand Strategy,” published in 2000.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia has handled a multitude of national security cases. It has become a prime focus in recent weeks after Trump fired former U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert, replacing him with Halligan.
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Last month, a former State Department employee, Michael Schena, was sentenced to four years in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he knew to be working for the PRC.
Tellis made his first court appearance on Tuesday and is scheduled for a detention hearing next week. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison.
