US government contractor pleads guilty to spying for Ethiopia
November 14, 2026
by intelNews
A FORMER UNITED STATES government contractor has pled guilty to conspiring to transmit national defense information to Ethiopia, admitting he passed Top Secret material to senior Ethiopian officials during an armed conflict in the country. Abraham Teklu Lemma, a 53-year-old Ethiopian-born naturalized American citizen residing in Maryland, pled guilty earlier this month to conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government.
Lemma was arrested on 24 August 2023 following a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counterintelligence investigation into his activities and relationships with Ethiopian government officials. He previously worked as an information technology contractor for three US government agencies: the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice (DoJ). At the time of his arrest, Lemma held concurrent positions as an information technology administrator at the Department of State and a management analyst at the DoJ, with access to classified government information under a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.
According to the DoJ, from 2021 until his arrest in August 2023, Lemma conspired with senior Ethiopian government officials to collect and transmit a significant volume of classified documents, notes, photographs, and other materials, which were classified up to the Top Secret level. Lemma’s court indictment adds that unauthorized disclosure of material assigned as Top Secret could reasonably be expected to cause “exceptionally grave damage to the national security” of the US.
According to the DOJ, much of the classified material illegally shared by Lemma, including satellite imagery and details of military activities, centered on the armed conflict in Ethiopia. Though the release does not name the conflict or the groups involved in Lemma’s case, the period in question overlaps with the civil war between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which lasted from 2020 until 2022.
It is alleged that during this period Lemma took several steps to conceal his conduct and communications. He reportedly corresponded with his conspirators through encrypted messaging apps and handwritten notes containing classified information, which he had previously carried out of secure US government facilities. Court documents state Lemma also removed electronic versions of classified information from secure government repositories.
The FBI’s Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, Roman Rozhavsky, claimed that Lemma, by his own admission, supplied the Ethiopian government with intelligence that the latter used to direct military operations. He also occasionally encouraged Ethiopian officials to take direct action against opposition paramilitary groups. On 18 December 2021, Lemma told one of his co-conspirators: “we have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia”. Later that day, he wrote: “please send Dro[nes]”, urging the deployment of drones against the opposition factions. The DoJ has not publicly named specific military operations or identified any victims that were targeted as a result of Lemma’s actions.
This case illustrates the challenge of internal breaches of trust within US intelligence and federal agencies, highlighting the direct impact of the dissemination of top-secret materials in foreign conflicts. Researchers at Belgium’s Ghent University, have estimated that 500,000 civilians were impacted by violence, famine, and the wholescale collapse of health services in Ethiopia during the civil conflict.
Although the African Union brokered the Pretoria Peace agreement in November 2022, which temporarily halted the conflict, major renewed fighting erupted on September 22-23 2026, when the TPLF and Tigray Defense Forces seized regional airports following major clashes in Tigray. The violence swiftly spread to the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. On 4 October, allied Tigrayan fighters entered Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, after the TPLF withdrew from the area. The chain of events followed six months of reported deteriorating relations between the Ethiopian government and the opposition factions, as both parties accuse one another of violating the terms of the 2022 agreement. Reports suggest there is a significant risk of a wider conflict spreading throughout the region.
If the court accepts Lemma’s plea agreement, the accused has agreed to be incarcerated for a period ranging from 120 to 262 months. His sentencing is set for 14 April 2027.
► Author: Molly Jones | Date: 14 November 2026 | Permalink
US government contractor pleads guilty to spying for Ethiopia
November 14, 2026 by intelNews Leave a comment
Lemma was arrested on 24 August 2023 following a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counterintelligence investigation into his activities and relationships with Ethiopian government officials. He previously worked as an information technology contractor for three US government agencies: the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of State, and the Department of Justice (DoJ). At the time of his arrest, Lemma held concurrent positions as an information technology administrator at the Department of State and a management analyst at the DoJ, with access to classified government information under a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) security clearance.
According to the DoJ, from 2021 until his arrest in August 2023, Lemma conspired with senior Ethiopian government officials to collect and transmit a significant volume of classified documents, notes, photographs, and other materials, which were classified up to the Top Secret level. Lemma’s court indictment adds that unauthorized disclosure of material assigned as Top Secret could reasonably be expected to cause “exceptionally grave damage to the national security” of the US.
According to the DOJ, much of the classified material illegally shared by Lemma, including satellite imagery and details of military activities, centered on the armed conflict in Ethiopia. Though the release does not name the conflict or the groups involved in Lemma’s case, the period in question overlaps with the civil war between the Ethiopian federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which lasted from 2020 until 2022.
It is alleged that during this period Lemma took several steps to conceal his conduct and communications. He reportedly corresponded with his conspirators through encrypted messaging apps and handwritten notes containing classified information, which he had previously carried out of secure US government facilities. Court documents state Lemma also removed electronic versions of classified information from secure government repositories.
The FBI’s Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence and Espionage Division, Roman Rozhavsky, claimed that Lemma, by his own admission, supplied the Ethiopian government with intelligence that the latter used to direct military operations. He also occasionally encouraged Ethiopian officials to take direct action against opposition paramilitary groups. On 18 December 2021, Lemma told one of his co-conspirators: “we have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia”. Later that day, he wrote: “please send Dro[nes]”, urging the deployment of drones against the opposition factions. The DoJ has not publicly named specific military operations or identified any victims that were targeted as a result of Lemma’s actions.
This case illustrates the challenge of internal breaches of trust within US intelligence and federal agencies, highlighting the direct impact of the dissemination of top-secret materials in foreign conflicts. Researchers at Belgium’s Ghent University, have estimated that 500,000 civilians were impacted by violence, famine, and the wholescale collapse of health services in Ethiopia during the civil conflict.
Although the African Union brokered the Pretoria Peace agreement in November 2022, which temporarily halted the conflict, major renewed fighting erupted on September 22-23 2026, when the TPLF and Tigray Defense Forces seized regional airports following major clashes in Tigray. The violence swiftly spread to the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions. On 4 October, allied Tigrayan fighters entered Mekelle, Tigray’s capital, after the TPLF withdrew from the area. The chain of events followed six months of reported deteriorating relations between the Ethiopian government and the opposition factions, as both parties accuse one another of violating the terms of the 2022 agreement. Reports suggest there is a significant risk of a wider conflict spreading throughout the region.
If the court accepts Lemma’s plea agreement, the accused has agreed to be incarcerated for a period ranging from 120 to 262 months. His sentencing is set for 14 April 2027.
► Author: Molly Jones | Date: 14 November 2026 | Permalink
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Filed under Expert news and commentary on intelligence, espionage, spies and spying Tagged with Abraham Teklu Lemma, espionage, Ethiopia, News, Tigray Defense Forces, Tigray People’s Liberation Front, Tigray War, United States