Ex-Federal IT Contractor Pleads Guilty to Spying for Ethiopia; FBI Affidavit Describes Folded Notes and 'Unclassified' Disks Carried Out of a Secure Facility

A former information technology contractor who worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, the State Department and the Justice Department pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court in Washington to conspiring to give classified U.S. defense information to the government of Ethiopia, the Justice Department said.

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 53, of Maryland, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. Under his plea agreement, if the court accepts it, he will be sentenced to between 120 and 262 months in prison. Sentencing is set for April 14, 2027.

The Digital Free Press read the sworn FBI affidavit filed when Lemma was arrested in August 2023, which describes how agents say he removed the material, and the court docket that tracks the case to Tuesday's plea.

What Lemma Admitted

According to the Justice Department, Lemma held a Top Secret clearance and, from 2021 until his arrest, conspired with senior Ethiopian political, military and intelligence officials to send them dozens of classified documents, notes, materials and photographs, some at the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information level. Much of it concerned an armed conflict in Ethiopia.

The department said he wrote classified information in handwritten notes and carried them out of secure facilities, and used his IT administrator access to take electronic copies out of classified systems. On Dec. 18, 2021, prosecutors said, Lemma told one conspirator, "We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia." Later that day, the department said, he shared more information and asked the conspirator to send drones.

"He exploited his IT administrator access to remove classified national defense information, including Top Secret information, from a secure facility and transmitted it to Ethiopian government officials hoping they would use it to target and kill paramilitary fighters in a regional conflict," said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg.

What the 2023 Affidavit Described

The August 2023 affidavit by FBI Special Agent Keith Anthony Starr, which does not name Ethiopia and calls it "the Relevant Country," says Lemma worked evenings as a help desk technician for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and days as a contract management analyst at the Justice Department.

According to the affidavit, between December 2022 and August 2023 he copied information from at least 85 intelligence reports he had no need to know, mostly about that country, and after a 2022 trip there downloaded more than 100 documents with classified information onto CDs or DVDs.

The agent wrote that Lemma was observed on Aug. 2, 2023, taking notes while viewing Top Secret reports, folding the paper several times and putting it in his pants pocket before leaving. On Aug. 7 and Aug. 18, he was observed pasting Top Secret material into Word documents, deleting the classification markings and burning the files to green-labeled disks that the State Department marks "Unclassified," then leaving the building with the disks in his pocket.

The affidavit also says that in 2022 he sent Top Secret satellite imagery of the region and other classified material through an encrypted messaging app to an account the FBI linked to an official of that country's intelligence service.

Three Years to a Plea

The docket shows Lemma was arrested Aug. 24, 2023, and the case was sealed at first. In early October, a hearing under the Classified Information Procedures Act was converted to a change-of-plea hearing, which was rescheduled twice before Tuesday.

The 2023 complaint charged him with offenses including delivering defense information to aid a foreign government, which under the statute quoted in the affidavit carries up to life in prison.

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Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, "Former U.S. Government Contractor Pleads Guilty to Spying for Ethiopia," Nov. 3, 2026 (https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-us-government-contractor-pleads-guilty-spying-ethiopia); Affidavit in Support of Criminal Complaint, United States v. Lemma, No. 1:23-mj-00227 (D.D.C.), Dkt. 1-1, Aug. 24, 2023 (https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.258981/gov.uscourts.dcd.258981.1.1_1.pdf); Court docket, United States v. Lemma, No. 1:24-cr-00573 (D.D.C.) (https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69482042/united-states-v-lemma/). Cover photo: "E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse" by AgnosticPreachersKid, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.