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. Read more of this post
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. Read more of this post
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