A former U.S. government contractor pleaded guilty to transmitting U.S. intelligence to Ethiopian officials after exploiting his top-secret clearance, according to a report citing a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
What the plea admits
The report identifies the defendant as Ibraham Teklu Lemma, 54, and says he admitted conspiring with senior Ethiopian officials to pass highly classified material obtained through his work at the State Department, the Justice Department, and the National Reconnaissance Office. The conduct allegedly spanned from 2021 until his August 2023 arrest, with the guilty plea entered on Nov. 3, per the report.
Quoting the DOJ press release, the report states: “For more than two years, Lemma exploited a position of trust to provide highly classified U.S. government information to a foreign government… His guilty plea sends a clear message: those who compromise America’s most sensitive secrets will be investigated, prosecuted, and held accountable.”
How he accessed the secrets
The report says Lemma was an IT systems administrator with a top-secret clearance and used that access to transmit information classified up to the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information (TS/SCI) level related to armed conflict in Ethiopia.
Claims of a broader pattern—unverified
The same report asserts that at least four other current or former U.S. officials or contractors faced recent charges or scrutiny for leaks. These include named individuals and actions it describes as arrests or firings. The Patriot United could not immediately verify those additional claims, the identities, or the job titles as presented in the report.
Open questions
The report says the DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the originating outlet. Details on sentencing timelines or additional safeguards around classified access were not provided in the source material.