An Indian immigrant who has worked for the State Department for over 20 years has been arrested for stealing classified documents at the highest level.
Many will argue that the turn of events vindicates President Donald Trump’s push to tighten immigration and visas for foreign workers.
Ashley Tellis, a 64-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Mumbai with a top-secret security clearance, was charged with unlawfully retaining classified defense information.
He was charged after a raid of his Virginia home that uncovered a trove of top-secret files, Newsmax reported.
A distinguished expert on India and South Asian affairs, Tellis has been a State Department adviser since 2001 and “played a key role in the US-India civil nuclear deal talks in the mid-2000s,” says the Hindustan Times.
According to prosecutors, Tellis met with Chinese officials repeatedly over the past three years and was caught stashing files from secure government sites over the past month.
On September 25, surveillance cameras at the State Department’s Harry S. Truman Building in Washington D.C. captured Tellis printing hundreds of pages from a classified system, including a 1,288-page file concerning U.S. Air Force tactics, the Hindustan Times reports.
Apparently trying to cover his tracks, he changed the file’s name to “Econ Reform” before printing selected pages and then deleting the file.
On October 10, surveillance cameras from a secure facility at the Pentagon’s Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, caught Tellis hiding top secret information inside notepads before placing them in his briefcase and leaving.
The following day, federal investigators conducted a court-authorized search of Tellis’ home in Vienna, Virginia.
Authorities found a large stash of documents stored haphazardly throughout the home, with some papers even kept in trash bags.
Between September 2022 and September 2025, Tellis is alleged to have met with Chinese officials in Fairfax, Virginia, for numerous dinners.
At one of these meetings, he entered with a “manila envelope” that he did not have on him when he left.
At other meetings, Tellis was heard discussing geopolitics with his Chinese connections, with topics including Iranian-Chinese relations, artificial intelligence, and U.S.-Pakistan relations.
During a recent September dinner, he received a gift bag from his Chinese associates.
He was ordered detained Tuesday, pending a detention hearing next week.
A lawyer for Tellis said “we look forward to the hearing, where we’ll be able to present evidence.”
If convicted, Tellis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic,” said U.S. Attorney Halligan.
“The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens.
“The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
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