Join me to hear the story of Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a spy who tried to share classified NSA secrets with Russia! This is eCrimeBytes Season 2 Episode 21 – Espionage With Jareh Sebastian Dalke – Act 2: The Dead Drop.
For the background, please see:
Sources:
- https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-nsa-employee-pleads-guilty-attempted-espionage
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65409940/united-states-v-dalke/
- https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/65386661/united-states-v-dalke/
Transcript:
00:00:10:00 – 00:00:31:15
Keith
Hey hey, you crazy bastards. Welcome back to eCrimeBytes. This is where I research the court paperwork and roast the criminal so you don’t have to. This week, I’m bringing you Jerry Sebastian Dalke and his espionage. Okay, this is act number two. If you’re on YouTube, I’ll put a little link up in the corner for you, but you probably should go back and watch Act
00:00:31:15 – 00:00:59:03
Keith
number one, because I talk all about the background and security clearancees and how Dalke worked at the NSA for only 25 days, got his hands on some classified information and then ends up talking to who he thinks is the Russian operatives, but is actually FBI agents pretending to be Russia and then says, here’s three documents that I have that are classified.
00:00:59:05 – 00:01:23:32
Keith
Here’s excerpts from them. I want a payment of about $100,000 for them and they agreed upon handing over all the classified information that he has for a lump sum of money at Union Station in Denver, Colorado. And that’s where I last left you. So I had to give you that quick tour just in case you’re deciding to stick around and you don’t want to go see Act One.
00:01:23:32 – 00:01:46:32
Keith
But that is the basic information you need to know to at least get an appreciation of this act. But I do recommend go back and read or listen to act number one if you can. Okay. So this one, this act number two is called the dead drop. Now, chronologically, I got to give you this little bullet point first before the dead drop happened.
00:01:46:37 – 00:02:19:46
Keith
The United States filed a formal complaint against Dalke for three counts of attempt to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a foreign government, a.k.a. espionage. This complaint drops right before this Union Station encounter chronologically. Okay, so at this point, they figure they have him on about three counts of crimes before he does the dead drop, just because he shared, I believe, the excerpts at this point.
00:02:19:51 – 00:02:47:31
Keith
So on September 28th of 2022, the dead drop happens. Remember, this is supposed to be between 11:30 in the morning at 3:30 at Union Station, Denver, Colorado. Dalke gets up, starts this day, not just by going, I’m playing some Xbox or something like that. Dalke starts his day by accepting his new employment at the NSA. Kind of fucking ironic on the day that he’s going to become a spy big time, right?
00:02:47:36 – 00:03:08:14
Keith
He then leaves his cell phone at home and then he disable the GPS on his vehicle to avoid law enforcement detection. That’s what it said in the court paperwork. I tried to find more information on that and wondered I couldn’t find it. I wonder what the hell that meant. And then I wondered, is this something that people regularly do?
00:03:08:14 – 00:03:28:34
Keith
I didn’t know Law enforcement, quote unquote, tracked people through their GPS on their vehicles. It would be news to me. I mean, I realize you could do it afterwards or you can also do it with OnStar. Maybe that’s what he disabled. But I found it very odd that, like that was the very first thing he did was disable his GPS on his vehicle.
00:03:28:39 – 00:03:51:20
Keith
So then Dalke showed up at Union Station on time with a laptop, and then he transmitted those five files over to that FTP server. File number one was a long letter to the Russians that I’m happy to read to you. I’m going to try to read this verbatim and not give you any tangents. So here we go. It says, I am happy to finally provide this information to you.
00:03:51:25 – 00:04:14:33
Keith
I thank you for your great efforts to accommodate this transfer. As I told my contact, I must type the information as other methods are risky and cause questions to be asked of other people. If this happens, I will not be able to share in the future. Please know the information is good. I am sure in some cases where your people already have information, it can be verified to make the process quicker.
00:04:14:34 – 00:04:38:36
Keith
I will only provide an overall classification at the start of the document and the author. I will not break down the classification of each section as these levels frequently change unless you require them in the future for some reason. I will also not include the sources or footnotes unless the desirable details are contained in them. I will also share the information that is discussed and images to the best of my ability.
00:04:38:36 – 00:04:51:31
Keith
These actions will allow you to be given a document that is searchable and able to be copied without extra pains and also cuts down on some of the great time spent typing the copies for you.
00:04:51:36 – 00:05:17:55
Keith
I look forward to our friendship and shared benefit. Please let me know if there are desired documents to find. I will try when I return to my main office. Until then, when I return to my home office, I will keep an eye out for documents that I think may be of interest to you. And that’s it. So files two through five are the classified documents of various sorts.
00:05:18:00 – 00:05:46:35
Keith
So at that moment, when he transmitted those files, agents rush in and they they arrest him. Okay. So he did the crime. They were like, hah hah I got you, bitch. And they arrested him. At that moment, they were probably prepared. They searched his home, what was on him, his person and his car. They found fraudulent documents, badges, etc. at home, which was something I was not expecting.
00:05:46:36 – 00:06:29:47
Keith
I was expecting he was kind of legit in getting most of his access. But they were finding things like contractor or NSA badges that were fraudulent but looked a lot like the original. And they were saying that basically if he were to walk around with some of these badges that they found, people wouldn’t question him. So I found that as a very important footnote to this whole case, that, you know, not only was he getting information that purportedly was coming from misconfigured systems, it looked like he was going to use fraudulent access too because he had these fake badges and stuff.
00:06:29:51 – 00:06:50:35
Keith
They also found these files that he transmitted on him in a laptop and a memory card. So he can’t just say, Hey, you arrested the wrong guy. They were like, Hey fucker, you had all these these one through five files that you just transmitted. You had them on yourself too.
00:06:50:40 – 00:07:25:01
Keith
So October 6, 2022, an indictment comes out and they added more counts now because that big dead drop happened at Union Station. So now they have six counts of attempt to transmit national defense information to an officer or agent of a federal government. I also call that espionage. So the detention hearing happens. This is a couple of days later, on October 10th of 2022, the government goes in there and as it should, they said, hey, this guy can easily flee.
00:07:25:06 – 00:07:49:31
Keith
He’s got fraudulent documents, badges. He’s got countries that are probably going to be sympathetic to him. Remember, this is in 2022. So Russia’s at war with Ukraine. So relations are not good with the U.S. He’s saying that or the government saying that Dalke could go to someplace like Russia and Russia wouldn’t give him back. Okay. Nobody knows how many documents Dalke actually has.
00:07:49:42 – 00:08:11:05
Keith
So we also cannot let him out of prison for that reason. And the court takes a look at this and they go, you know what? You’re right, Dalke, You’re going to be detained. And like other cases, I think that kind of influences his decision going forward because I think he kind of says, fuck it, I’m guilty in all six counts.
00:08:11:19 – 00:08:33:26
Keith
Yes, he just pleads guilty. All six counts just doesn’t seem to fight it or anything, because on October 23rd of 2023, he pleads guilty to all six counts in there. He then goes in and explains how he did his crimes. And it’s what I presented to you in this case. That’s how I was able to tell you the information that I told you was he detailed it.
00:08:33:31 – 00:08:40:03
Keith
So now now he’s looking at life in prison and unfortunately we don’t have sentencing yet.
00:08:40:02 – 00:08:55:27
Keith
So now all we’re doing is we’re awaiting sentencing. And like I said in other cases, that sentencing sometimes can take, there can be a delay of when they plead guilty and later on when they say you’re going to get X amount of years in prison because they’ll factor in the person’s personal life,
00:08:55:27 – 00:09:16:47
Keith
and the fact that they cooperate, and a whole bunch of other things. And that usually takes a little bit of time. So when we get that sentencing update, I will definitely come back and have an update for you when it happens. That’s it. That’s the end of this crime. So here’s some final thoughts. Number one, possible life in prison.
00:09:16:47 – 00:09:48:38
Keith
Possible life in prison for less than $100,000. Now, remember, he asked the Russians for about $85,000. So I’m just rounding up and saying 100,000 here. So if you say he’s throwing his life away for $100,000, that to me is just mind blowing, because these other cases that I’ve brought to you, people walk away with $20 million and it’s you know, they they’re in prison for just a handful of years and here Dalke very little money, but a lot of years.
00:09:48:38 – 00:10:12:18
Keith
And that’s because the whole classified nature of the information that he stole and was willing to give it to a foreign country. And I think it was, right, I think what he has to worry about in his sentencing is his motives seem to be to damage the U.S. He can’t even just say, I am broke, I am broke, motherfucker.
00:10:12:18 – 00:10:35:58
Keith
And I need money. He can’t just say that in this case. He is broke. He has a quarter million dollars in debt. But he said to the undercover, I want to tip the scales back. I have issues with, you know, the wrongs that the United States have done in the world. So I think all that that’s going to be an issue for him later on in sentencing.
00:10:35:58 – 00:10:57:12
Keith
It’s not going to be necessarily the money. So even though I’m stressing $100,000, to me, I’m looking at it like, God, he only threw his life way for $100,000. He threw his life away because it was that that I just described to you. Now, I thought it was kind of odd that he didn’t push too hard to figure out that the Russians were not the Russians.
00:10:57:23 – 00:11:17:13
Keith
He pushed them a little bit and they said, ah sorry, can’t do that. And then he said, don’t worry about that, let’s continue. So it was if he would have turned around, I think they would have if they would have caught him at that point is what they would have called him for, wouldn’t have been so big as the Union Station drop that we talked to you about.
00:11:17:12 – 00:11:42:31
Keith
I really wish in this case, the court documents would have said how the FBI knew the email initially, because the investigator and the researcher in me, that was a cool part of the story that it just wasn’t in the public documentation. I think would have been interesting to know what it was that he said, what Dalke said to get everybody’s attention to send an email to that account.
00:11:42:36 – 00:12:07:45
Keith
I imagine on the dark web somewhere he had to post it on some forum that led to this email, but I don’t know that for sure. Printing. Printing still a thing because that’s how classified documents left the building here. I was kind of shocked to see that printing was still a thing in classified environments in 2022 to the point of losing classified information.
00:12:07:50 – 00:12:24:23
Keith
And like I said, when there’s an update on a sentencing, we’re going to come back that come back and give you an update on that. Sometimes it takes months, sometimes it takes a couple of years. It just depends on the whole process and the person’s background. So once I see something, I’ll definitely come back and give an update to this.
00:12:24:23 – 00:12:52:24
Keith
So I’m looking forward to it too. That is the end of the case. Hold on one second. I’m going to give you a preview of next week in this episode. If there’s anything you liked, please subscribe. Thumbs up, follow. Like. Whatever the positive affirmation thing is on your platform, please do it. If you can reshare this with your friends that like true crime podcasts and possibly a couple of jokes thrown in, please share that with them as well.
00:12:52:29 – 00:13:17:45
Keith
If you have been to our website, please do its e crime bytes. E C R I M E B Y as in yellow milk T E S dot com. And it’s got all our social media links and stuff across the top up there too. So next week, next week I’ve got kind of an interesting case for you. I’ll tell you the name and then tell you a little bit about it.
00:13:17:50 – 00:13:40:49
Keith
It’s called child Porn and Hacking NFL scoreboards with Samuel Thompson. And like me, you’re probably hearing that title and go, fuck, how do those two go together? They don’t really until you talk about Samuel Thompson, who is into both of them. And I couldn’t unravel the child porn to just make it a hacking case for you because it was actually kind of part of the case.
00:13:40:54 – 00:14:04:26
Keith
They found out about the hacking and they also found out about the child porn. So the cases kind of went together. And the NFL scoreboard was an interesting case. The actual hack was less than a minute, but the hack itself actually changed a scoreboard for an NFL team and everybody saw it and then they investigated it and it led to this episode I’m going to bring you next week.
00:14:04:26 – 00:14:15:17
Keith
So I hope to see you back on next week, Season two Episode 22 eCrimeBytes of Child Porn and Hacking NFL Scoreboards with Samuel Thompson.
00:14:15:17 – 00:14:16:54
Keith
Thanks. Bye.
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