EXCLUSIVE: DOJ Tells TDFP Navy Base Filming Suspect Sent Footage to Friends, No Evidence of Foreign Government Ties
The man charged with secretly filming sensitive military equipment at a California Navy base sent the footage to his friends, and federal prosecutors have no evidence those friends were working for a foreign government, the Justice Department told The Digital Free Press on Wednesday.
"The associates were friends of his," Ciaran McEvoy, public affairs officer for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California, said in an on-record email to TDFP. "If we had evidence they were working for a foreign government, we would have said so in the information (and press release)."
Todd Jeremy Senff, 46, of Camarillo, California, is charged with 14 federal misdemeanors: 11 counts of violating a defense property security regulation and three counts of entering military property for an unlawful purpose. He has not been convicted and is presumed innocent.
According to the Justice Department, Senff worked for a Navy construction services contractor at Naval Base Ventura County. The company won a three-year construction contract there in September 2023. Senff worked on about four projects and obtained a credential granting him access to parts of the base. The base includes Point Mugu, home to naval weapons-testing commands, and gives access to the Point Mugu Sea Range, the Navy's largest instrumented sea range. Signs at Point Mugu stated that photography was prohibited.
From June to September 2024, Senff allegedly used that access to photograph and film "sensitive military equipment and military exercises," then sent some of the images and videos to associates "along with messages regarding military activities," prosecutors said.
The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service are investigating. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph S. Guzman of the National Security Division is prosecuting the case.
TDFP asked why a case handled by national security prosecutors ended in misdemeanors only, and whether espionage or felony charges were considered. McEvoy pointed back to his first answer: prosecutors have no evidence the recipients were working for a foreign government.
Asked why charges came more than two years after the alleged conduct ended, McEvoy said: "We do not comment on investigations."
TDFP also asked whether the contractor Senff worked for is still working on the base. "To our knowledge, yes," McEvoy said. "I must stress that an individual – not a company or organization – was charged." The Justice Department has not named the company.
Senff was scheduled to be arraigned at 1 p.m. Pacific time Wednesday in federal court in downtown Los Angeles. He is represented by Deputy Federal Public Defender Daniel T. Lee, McEvoy said.
If convicted, Senff faces up to one year in federal prison on each security regulation count and up to six months on each count of entering military property, according to the Justice Department.
Open questions remain: what exactly was filmed, whether the footage spread beyond the friends who received it, and how a contractor's credential allowed months of alleged filming at one of the Navy's most sensitive test sites. TDFP will keep asking.
Hold Everyone Accountable.
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