US Government Contractor In Custody Over Accusations Of Spying For Ethiopia

Abraham Teklu Lemma, a U.S. government contractor, has been arrested on suspicion of spying, allegedly for Ethiopia, Barron’s reported

Lemma, an American citizen of Ethiopian heritage, was taken into custody on Aug. 24. The Justice Department has charged him with delivering national defense data to a foreign government.

Lemma, a resident of Silver Spring, Maryland, is described as an IT systems and data analyst on his LinkedIn profile. His criminal complaint was revealed on Friday. The Justice Department did not disclose the country he was allegedly spying for, but Ethiopia was identified by the New York Times and other U.S. media outlets.

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Lemma reportedly conducted his espionage activities between December 2022 and August 2023. He allegedly copied secret and top-secret data from numerous intelligence reports at the State Department and supplied it to a foreign intelligence service official via encrypted messaging.

Lemmas, who has held a top-secret security clearance since 2020, also worked as a contract management analyst at the Justice Department. He now faces two counts of espionage and one of unlawfully retaining national defense information.

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