Naval engineer from Annapolis pleads guilty to conspiring to share U.S. nuclear sub secrets

[Zorro]

Source: Washington Post

A Navy nuclear engineer pleaded guilty Monday to charges he tried to sell nuclear secrets to a foreign country, and will likely spend at least a dozen years behind bars after admitting he conspired with his wife in the high-profile espionage case.

“Guilty, your honor,” Jonathan Toebbe said in federal court in Martinsburg, W. Va., when Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble asked for his plea. Toebbe has been in custody since October, when FBI agents arrested him on charges that he and his wife Diana conspired to share “restricted data," a violation of the Atomic Energy Act that carries the possibility of a life prison sentence.

Toebbe’s plea deal does not resolve the charges against his wife.

Under the terms of the agreement, he faces a likely prison sentence of roughly 12 years to 17 1/2 years. He also agreed to help authorities recover all restricted or sensitive government data, as well as the money that an undercover FBI agent gave him as part of a sting operation to gather evidence against him.

Authorities say the Toebbes, of Annapolis, Md., schemed together to offer to sell government secrets about nuclear propulsion systems on U.S. submarines to an unidentified foreign country. According to court papers, investigators learned of the plot after the country forwarded the couple’s sales pitch to the FBI. The agency set up a sting operation that allegedly caught the Toebbes going to “dead drop” sites within driving distance from their home.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/02/14/toebbe-plea-navy-spy/

[bluestarone]

1. I just gotta wonder if it was

Russia???

[Harker]

2. I doubt it.

Whoever it was reportedly fingered the couple to the FBI.

[COL Mustard]

4. It wouldn't have been Russia

The third country cooperated with the FBI, and the Russians would not have done that. My guess is either France or Israel. But I have no knowledge to go on.

[Samrob]

3. Just curious. Are these two natural born American Citizens?

I tried a couple of searches but couldn't find anything.

[WillUSAF]

5. My uneducated guess is China or Israel

[BlueIdaho]

7. Put me down for Israel.

[Zorro]

8. Might also be France

[BlueIdaho]

9. +100

[FakeNoose]

6. Pittsburgh Post Gazette article on same topic

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Feb. 14, 2022 5:53 p.m.

(link) https://www.post-gazette.com/news/crime-courts/2022/02/14/Navy-nuclear-engineer-formerly-at-Bettis-lab-admits-to-selling-sub-secrets/stories/202202140091

Former U.S. Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe, who had worked previously at a West Mifflin atomic laboratory, admitted Monday that he tried to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign power for $100,000.

Toebbe, 43, of Annapolis, Md., pleaded guilty in Martinsburg, W.Va., and became a federal felon in pleading guilty to conspiracy to communicate protected data. He faces a sentencing range of 12 to 17 years.

He admitted that he conspired with his wife, Diana, to transmit the data between April 1, 2020, and Oct. 9, 2021, in Jefferson County, W.Va., and elsewhere. ...

Agents said Toebbe had tried to sell information pertaining to the design of nuclear reactors for Virginia-class submarines. He had dropped off secret data at four dead-drop sites in West Virginia, central Pennsylvania and Virginia. Toebbe thought he was dealing with a foreign government representative. But his contact was an FBI agent.

- more at link -

Lock them up!

[musclecar6]

10. Why

In the world would a couple do something like this ? Screw up your life for for a hare brain scheme like this, let alone any thought of patriotism? This something we’d expect from the orange nazi.