FBI Director Kash Patel said the case ‘underscores the persistent risk of insider threats.’
An IT specialist employed by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was arrested on May 29 in Northern Virginia and charged with attempting to transmit classified information to an officer or agent of a foreign government, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested while allegedly trying to transmit multiple classified documents to a person he believed was a foreign government official, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
The department did not state which country Laatsch believed the individual to be from but described it as a “friendly foreign government.”
In a statement posted to social media platform X, FBI Director Kash Patel said Laatsch’s case “underscores the persistent risk of insider threats.”
“The FBI remains steadfast in protecting our national security and thanks our law enforcement partners for their critical support,” Patel said.
Laatsch was hired by the DIA in 2019 and worked with the Insider Threat Division, where he held a top secret security clearance, the DOJ said in a statement.
The FBI began investigating him in March 2025 after receiving a tip that an individual offered to provide classified information to a foreign government.
Laatsch allegedly wrote in an email to the government representative that he did not “agree or align with the values of this administration” and was willing to transmit sensitive materials that he had access to, including “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”
The DOJ said Laatsch communicated multiple times with an FBI agent he believed to be a foreign government official and began transcribing classified information taken from his workspace onto a notepad over the course of about three days.
The DOJ said he later confirmed to the agent that he was prepared to transmit the information and made plans to leave it in a public park in Northern Virginia so the foreign government could retrieve it.
Laatsch deposited a thumb drive at the location on or around May 1, according to the DOJ. It was retrieved by the FBI and allegedly found to contain a message from Laatsch and several typed documents marked “Secret” and “Top Secret.”
