US Citizen Tries to Join German Intelligence

In the United States, an American was exposed for attempting to pass secret information to German intelligence.

The German publication Tagesschau reported that a cybersecurity expert from the US military intelligence had initially offered his services to Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service.

However, the German intelligence did not respond and instead informed their allies in the US about the incident.

“Usually, it is the German intelligence services that benefit from information coming from the United States. This time, however, the situation was clearly reversed,” the publication noted.

The man held the highest level of security clearance for classified information.

The detained American explained that he did not share the values of the Donald Trump administration and therefore had decided to provide confidential information to another country.

According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice, the 28-year-old man was arrested while attempting to hand over confidential documents to an undercover FBI agent, after having maintained contact with him for some time.

The detainee confused the FBI agent with a representative of a foreign “friendly government,” whom he initially contacted via email.

On May 1, he handed over a flash drive in a park containing a “sample” of classified documents to “demonstrate the extent of his access.” Later, he demanded “citizenship” or another form of reward for further cooperation.

On May 29, during a special operation in Northern Virginia, he was arrested immediately after attempting to transfer a flash drive containing classified materials.

The case is being investigated by the FBI with support from U.S. military intelligence. Charges are being prepared by the prosecutors from the counterintelligence and export control division.

In May, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office detained three Ukrainian citizens on suspicion of preparing sabotage on behalf of Russia.