Ashley Tellis indicted on 11 Espionage counts in US Court

Washington, Feb 14
A federal grand jury in Virginia has returned a superseding indictment against prominent Indian American scholar and former US government adviser Ashley J. Tellis, charging him with 11 counts of willful retention of national defense information under the Espionage Act.

Filed on February 12 in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the new indictment replaces the earlier criminal complaint that led to Tellis’s arrest in October 2025.

Federal prosecutors allege that from 2001 till October 11, 2025, Tellis was employed by the US Department of State and, at various times since 2003, served as a contractor at the Department of Defense. In connection with his government work, he held a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information.

According to the superseding indictment, Tellis removed, without authorization, US government property, including documents relating to national defense and other classified materials. The indictment states that many of the documents bore markings indicating they were classified at the Secret and Top Secret levels, including SCI information.

The grand jury alleges that Tellis willfully retained 11 classified documents at his residence without authorization. These documents, dated between 2018 and 2025, include material related to Chinese nuclear capabilities, assessments of foreign military forces, vulnerabilities of a US military facility, and projections of future nuclear capabilities of foreign governments.

Each of the 11 counts corresponds to a specific classified document that prosecutors say he retained unlawfully.

The indictment notes that at no point during the charged period did Tellis deliver or attempt to deliver the classified documents to any officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive them. The charges center on alleged unauthorized retention, not on transmission.

Prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of property traceable to the alleged offenses, including materials seized from Tellis’s residence in October 2025 and any digital media or devices used to store such information.

Court records indicate that Tellis remains out on bond and is represented by retained counsel. Assistant US Attorney Seth Schlessinger is leading the prosecution.

Tellis, 64, was born in Bombay, India, and later became a US citizen. Over the past two decades, he has been a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a well-known expert on US–India strategic relations. He previously served as a senior adviser at the State Department and held a role on the National Security Council during the George W. Bush administration, where he was associated with shaping the US–India civil nuclear agreement.

An indictment is an allegation. Tellis is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.