Pentagon advisor accused of hoarding classified docs placed on leave by prominent DC think tank

A prominent Washington think tank told Fox News Digital that one of its experts, who is a State Department employee, was placed on administrative leave after being accused of removing classified documents from secure locations and meeting with Chinese officials dating back to 2023. 

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that Ashley Tellis of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was arrested over the weekend.

“We are aware of the allegations against Ashley Tellis. He is now on administrative leave, including from his role as Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs,” Katelynn Vogt, vice president for communications for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

The Justice Department said Tellis was an unpaid senior advisor to the State Department and also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense, recently renamed the Department of War. He is considered a subject-matter expert on India and South Asian affairs in his role at the Office of Net Assessment. 

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Tellis began working for the State Department in 2001, court documents state. He is accused of unlawful retention of national defense information, according to an affidavit. 

“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” Lindsey Halligan, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. 

Tellis held a top-secret clearance and had access to sensitive information, federal prosecutors said in court documents.  

During a search of his Vienna, Virginia, home, authorities found more than a thousand pages of documents marked “TOP SECRET” and “SECRET,” the court documents added. 

On Sept. 12, Tellis had a coworker at a government facility print multiple classified documents for him, authorities said. 

On Sept. 25, he allegedly printed U.S. Air Force documents concerning military aircraft capabilities. Federal prosecutors allege that he met with Chinese government officials multiple times over the past several years. 

In September 2022, he met with Chinese officials at a Virginia restaurant while holding a manila envelope, prosecutors said. 

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If convicted, Tellis faces a maximum sentence of 10 years and up to a $250,000 fine, according to the Justice Department. 

The Associated Press reported that Tellis was ordered detained Tuesday pending a detention hearing next week, and an attorney representing him, Deborah Curtis, said, “We look forward to the hearing, where we’ll be able to present evidence.” 

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said on its website that Tellis specialized “in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent.”

“While on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as senior advisor to the undersecretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India,” it added. 

“Previously, he was commissioned into the U.S. Foreign Service and served as senior advisor to the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia,” the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said. 

It also described Tellis as a “member of several professional organizations related to defense and international studies, including the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States Naval Institute and the Navy League of the United States.”