- Indian-American scholar Ashley Tellis granted pre-trial release by US court on home confinement
- Tellis was accused of unlawfully retaining over 1,000 pages of classified national defence documents
- Defence denied espionage claims, stating that no evidence of sharing classified information exists
A US court has granted pre-trial release to Indian-American scholar Ashley Tellis in a purported espionage case. Attorneys of Tellis, who is accused of keeping more than 1,000 pages of classified records in his basement, have pledged full cooperation with authorities, citing the 64-year-old scholar's "lifelong commitment to American national security".
A prominent expert on Indian and South Asian affairs, Tellis has worked in Washington think tanks and diplomatic circles for more than 20 years. He was arrested last week after the FBI searched his Vienna, Virginia, residence and found more than 1,000 pages of top-secret or secret documents in a basement home office area.
He was later charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national defence information and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Arguments In Court
During a preliminary appearance before a Virginia district court judge, Tellis's attorneys said he had been cooperating with investigators since his arrest and was released from jail to home confinement on Tuesday.
A respected voice in Washington's foreign policy establishment, Tellis is currently a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specialising in international security, defence, and Asian strategic issues. He held senior positions under former President George W Bush and remained an unpaid advisor to the State Department.
During the hearing, Tellis's attorneys pushed back on the Justice Department's legal filing that suggested Tellis may have leaked classified US defence records to China. The defence argued that the Justice Department overreached against a supposed US patriot whose "scholarly curiosity", and not malice, led to the benign hoarding of classified documents found in his home.
"Any insinuation that Dr Tellis has disclosed classified information - let alone to a foreign government - lacks any evidentiary basis," defence attorneys John Nassikas and Deborah Curtis said in a court filing, according to a report by The Washington Post.
"Regrettably, investigators appeared to interpret his routine professional duties, such as liaison work and international travel, as clandestine activity, reading something sinister into what were standard think-tank and scholarly foreign policy engagements," they added, vowing to "vigorously contest" all allegations of espionage against Tellis.
The team also framed the case as an overzealous counterintelligence in an era of US-China tensions.
In its affidavit, the FBI has alleged that Tellis met repeatedly with Chinese officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia, and that at one dinner he appeared to have arrived with a manila envelope, which was not seen on his person when he returned. It also said that at the most recent dinner last month, Chinese officials gave Tellis a "red gift bag."
Tellis's attorneys argued that exchanging small gifts in Asian culture was normal and not something "nefarious", as was being portrayed.
"The red gift bag contained tea - a common gift in Asian cultures," the attorneys said. They argued that the Manila envelope probably contained a printout of an article Tellis had written, as he was known to hand those out at meetings.
"The sole charge against him involves the unlawful retention of national defence information - not its dissemination...There is no allegation, let alone evidence, that Dr Tellis ever shared, attempted to share, or intended to share national defence information with unauthorised individuals," the attorneys wrote.
A federal magistrate judge granted a joint request from prosecutors and Tellis's attorneys for home confinement pending trial. He was released on a $1.5 million secured bond, which was backed by his family home and co-signed by his wife, Dhun Tellis. The next hearing in the case is set for November 4.
