A government intelligence worker has been charged with leaking classified data to a foreign power in exchange for citizenship.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, allegedly betrayed his country due to frustration with Donald Trump’s policies that he found ‘extremely disturbing’.
A civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he had top secret clearance and access to several highly classified Special Access Programs.
Laatsch was arrested on Thursday as he allegedly made a dead drop of a USB drive filled with classified documents after a months-long FBI sting operation.
He was charged with attempting to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government and will appear in court on Friday.
Laatsch joined the DIA in August 2019, soon after graduating from Florida Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Science in cyber security in 2018.
By the beginning of this year he was a data scientist and IT specialist of information security at the agency’s Insider Threat Division.
He allegedly emailed an agent of a friendly country on March 2 from burner a account created the same day, with the subject line ‘Outreach from USA Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Officer’.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, allegedly betrayed his country due to frustration with Donald Trump ‘s policies that he found ‘extremely disturbing’
‘I am an officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) serving in a technical role in support of our internal Officer of Security (SEC),’ he wrote.
‘The recent actions of the current administration are extremely disturbing to me
‘I do not agree or align with the values of this administration and intend to act to support the values that the United States at one time stood for.
‘To this end, I am willing to share classified information that I have access to, which are completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.’
The email explained he had ‘intimate knowledge of how DIA tracks and monitors user activity’ and all further communication had to be on an encrypted messaging app.
Laatsch allegedly provided photos of his security badges with personal information removed – but left enough exposed that the FBI was able to identify him.
His fatal mistake was to send a test email from another account that allegedly included his full name, phone number, and date of birth, and the IP address led back to his home.
Instead of taking him up on his offer, the unnamed friendly government tipped of US authorities and the FBI began a sting operation, starting on March 23
‘Good afternoon, I received your message and share your concerns. We are glad you reached out. I look forward to your response and learning more about your work,’ investigators wrote on an encrypted app.
The leaker didn’t reply so they sent him an email on April 4.
He replied on April 14 saying he didn’t check the email much as there was no reply to his initial one for a while, but he was still interested.
‘What I originally wrote remains true. Arguably more so now,’ Laatsch wrote.
A civilian employee of the Defense Intelligence Agency, he had top secret clearance and access to several highly classified Special Access Programs
Conversations moved to an encrypted app on April 17 with Laatsch allegedly still believing he was talking to the foreign government.
He allegedly said he had ‘access to a significant amount of information and finished products’ but would need to ‘copy things manually’, which would ‘somewhat limit’ what he could provide.
‘I’ve given a lot of thought to this before any outreach, and despite the risks, the calculus has not changed,’ he explained.
‘I do not see the trajectory of things changing, and do not think it is appropriate or right to do nothing when I am in this position.’
Laatsch allegedly planned to copy out the classified data by hand and digitize it on his home computer.
The FBI asked him for a sample of the intelligence on April 27 so they could authenticate it.
DIA cameras allegedly filmed him writing on a notepad while having classified material open on his computer.
He then allegedly smuggled the folded pages out of the office in his socks and lunchbox over the course of three days.
Laatsch allegedly told them he had extracted classified data and they set up a dead drop at a park in Arlington, Virginia.
The drop was done on May 1 and agents watched him leave a USB drive with a note explaining his methods, and nine documents.
‘I have to the best of my ability attempted to copy the products by hand, but I cannot guarantee that every single word is completely correct,’ the note read.
‘If there are any mistakes, they would only be a basic word or two, and nothing that would alter the content or meaning of the product.
‘As anticipated, the process of manually copying by hand will be time-intensive.
Many of the provided products took around 40-60 minutes to fully complete, and often two full pages of notebook paper per-product.’
Prosecutors said the documents were all top secret and one included ‘sensitive methods of intelligence collection, intelligence related to foreign military exercises, and analysis of the impact of those military exercises’.
Laatsch was arrested on Thursday as he allegedly made a dead drop of a USB drive filled with classified documents after a months-long FBI sting operation
Laatsch on May 7 allegedly asked for citizenship of the friendly country in exchange for future classified information.
‘With my own credibility now hopefully established, I would like to outline something pertaining to the longer term of this arrangement,’ he allegedly wrote.
‘I’m [sic] not mentioned compensation throughout this, as that is not my motivation for doing this… There is though something I am interested in, but can be discussed at the appropriate time.’
Laatsch allegedly wrote that he was interested in ‘citizenship for your country’ because he did not ‘expect things here to improve in the long term, even in the event there is a change in the future’.
This state affairs meant he he wanted ‘to pursue an alternative, despite the clear challenges that would come with it’.
Although he said he was ‘not opposed to other compensation’, he was not in a position where he needed to seek ‘material compensation’.
Laatsch allegedly explained how it would be difficult for him to because as his role would give him early warning of an investigation.
‘it will not be easy for them, for example, to open a case on me without my knowledge since my permissions to see that would need to be changed and I’d notice,’ he wrote.
He laid out the ‘stupid mistakes’ others made when cases were opened on them and said these mistakes ‘should not be too difficult for me to avoid’.
Little did he know that the investigation was launched months ago, and as it was conducted by the FBI he didn’t see it coming.
Laatsch allegedly said he would be ready to provide more intel on May 26, and on May 15 to 27 he copied more data and hid it in his socks to extract it.
He was arrested at the second dead drop on Thursday at the same park in Arlington, near his home in Alexandria, Virginia.
