Washington: A respected Indian-American expert on South Asian affairs has firmly rejected accusations of mishandling sensitive government files and any ties to foreign entities, according to his legal team.
Ashley J. Tellis, 64, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from India, was taken into custody on Saturday by federal authorities. He now confronts potential penalties of up to a decade behind bars on charges stemming from the alleged unauthorized retention of classified materials, as outlined by the Justice Department.
Tellis previously occupied high-level roles during the administration of former President George W. Bush, including contributions to the pivotal U.S.-India civil nuclear agreement that bolstered ties between the two largest democracies. He has also served as an uncompensated consultant to the State Department in recent years. Currently, he holds the position of senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a prominent Washington-based research organization, which announced on Wednesday that Tellis has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.
In a statement released Wednesday, Tellis’s attorneys, Deborah Curtis and John Nassikas, portrayed their client as “a widely respected scholar and senior policy advisor.” They pledged to “vigorously contest the allegations brought against him, specifically any insinuation of his operating on behalf of a foreign adversary.”
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The case gained public attention through a criminal affidavit unsealed on Tuesday. It details how Tellis accessed State Department facilities late on September 25, seemingly to print materials from a restricted file concerning U.S. Air Force operational methods. Additionally, the document claims multiple encounters between Tellis and Chinese officials at a Fairfax, Virginia, restaurant near Washington, including one instance where he allegedly handed over a manila envelope during a meal.
However, the formal indictment focuses solely on the improper possession of documents, not the reported meetings. An FBI special agent involved in the probe revealed that a subsequent search of Tellis’s residence uncovered over 1,000 pages of documents marked top secret or secret.
Tellis has carved out a notable, if occasionally dissenting, voice in policy circles. While instrumental in advancing U.S.-India strategic partnerships earlier in his career, he has lately voiced concerns in Washington about diverging priorities between New Delhi and its Western allies, such as on the Ukraine conflict.
The developments have sparked interest in broader national security debates, with separate commentary from a retired CIA veteran, Glen Carle, expressing suspicions about Tellis’s interactions, as covered by NDTV. Authorities have not yet commented further on potential espionage implications.
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