Indian-American scholar Ashley Tellis granted pre-trial release in espionage case

Indian-American scholar and policy adviser Ashley Tellis has been granted pre-trial release in a high-profile espionage case, after his attorneys promised full cooperation and invoked his “lifelong commitment to American national security”.

Tellis, 64, a senior adviser at the US State Department and a contractor with the Department of Defence, was arrested earlier this month for allegedly hoarding classified defence documents at his Virginia home. Prosecutors accused him of unlawfully retaining over a thousand pages of top-secret material, including files tied to US military capabilities.

However, his defence team called the case against him “an overreach against a patriot,” portraying Tellis as a career public servant caught in the crosshairs of Washington’s tightening counterintelligence climate.

In a preliminary appearance before the Eastern District of Virginia, Tellis’ lawyers said his actions stemmed from “scholarly curiosity, not espionage”.

They argued the documents the FBI recovered were routine work products from his decades of government service — inadvertently retained during a demanding schedule rather than deliberately hidden.

“There was no malice, no covert intent — only a lifetime devoted to understanding and strengthening US national security,” his attorneys told the court.

The defence pushed back against insinuations that Tellis had operated on behalf of a foreign adversary, stressing that his interactions with Chinese officials were transparent academic exchanges, not secretive missions.

“All meetings were fully disclosed during his regular security clearance renewals,” they said, dismissing FBI claims of espionage as “misguided suspicion in an era of US-China paranoia”.

JUDGE ALLOWS RELEASE UNDER STRICT CONDITIONS

Judge Lindsey Robinson Vaala approved Tellis’ pre-trial release under strict supervision. He was ordered to surrender his passport, limit travel, and undergo electronic monitoring. His internet access will also be restricted, and he will be supervised by pretrial services.

His wife, Dhun Tellis, co-signed a $1.5 million secured bond backed by the family home. The judge noted Tellis’ deep community roots — a 40-year US residency, marriage to a US citizen, adult children living nearby, and substantial local assets — as evidence that he posed no flight risk.

A preliminary hearing is set for November 4, 2025.

WHAT THE FBI ALLEGED

According to the Justice Department, Tellis held Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance and had accessed classified materials at both the State Department and the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment, where he also worked as a contractor.

FBI Counterintelligence Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky said Tellis’ arrest should serve as a stark warning to anyone thinking about undermining national security.

“By allegedly removing classified documents from government facilities and storing them in his basement, Mr. Tellis betrayed that trust,” added Darren Cox, head of the FBI Washington Field Office.

Officials alleged he removed classified documents from secure facilities, including a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), and stored them at his Vienna, Virginia, residence. Investigators reportedly found over a thousand pages of classified documents, some marked SECRET and TOP SECRET, in locked cabinets and trash bags in his basement.

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