By The Epoch Times | Created at 2026-08-28 14:06:40 | Updated at 2026-09-05 06:58:50
1 week ago
An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) admitted Wednesday he’d tried to pass national defense information to a foreign government.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 29, from Alexandria, Virginia, worked as an employee of the DIA’s Insider Threat division when he attempted to transmit classified information to an officer or agent of a foreign government.
Laatsch made the admission in a court in the Eastern District of Virginia. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 27, 2027, and faces life in prison. A federal judge will determine the sentence after reviewing the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and various factors.
Hired as a civilian in 2019, Laatsch had Top Secret clearance. In March 2025, the FBI began investigating that he’d offered classified information to a friendly foreign government. He began trading messages and started flying with a person he believed was a foreign government official, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent buildin.
According to court documents, Laatsch began copying classified information onto a notepad at his desk in late April 2025.
Over approximately three days, he removed the notes from his workspace and later placed a thumb drive containing the material in a public park in northern Virginia for pickup, but the FBI recovered it.
The drive contained multiple typed documents classified at the Secret or Top Secret level, as well as a note from Laatsch. In the note, he wrote that he had included “a decent sample size” of material to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” available to him.
After learning the drive had been retrieved, Laatsch requested “citizenship” in the foreign country. He added that while he was “not opposed to other compensation,” he did not need “material compensation” from a financial standpoint.
In mid-May, the undercover agent told Laatsch more material could be accepted. Between May 15 and May 27, 2025, Laatsch again transcribed notes while logged into his classified workstation and carried them out hidden in his clothing. On May 29, he arrived at a prearranged meeting spot in northern Virginia and handed over additional classified documents. Agents arrested him.
In May 2025, Laatsch had written in an email that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was prepared to provide completed intelligence products, unprocessed intelligence, and other classified documentation.
“U.S. government employees entrusted with our nation’s secrets must always protect our nation’s security, not cavalierly toss aside this responsibility out of disagreement, selfishness, or greed. Laatsch faces serious consequences for violating his position of trust,” Attorney General Todd Blanche said.
“This case shows that if you unlawfully disclose national defense information, we will find you and hold you accountable to the fullest extent the law allows.”
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said that Laatsch’s animus toward the U.S. government was no excuse to betray the oath he took to the Constitution.
“Unlawfully disclosing national defense information to a foreign government is a serious crime, not a form of principled dissent,” Eisenberg said.
