Fed IT Specialist Arrested For Allegedly Trying To Sell Secrets

By
Gregory McMullen
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The Biden-to-Trump handoff has exposed yet another raw nerve inside America’s national security complex. On Thursday, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Nathan Vilas Laatsch, a 28-year-old IT specialist with Top Secret clearance at the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), for allegedly attempting to leak classified national defense information to a foreign government.

Laatsch, a civilian employee since 2019 and a member of the Insider Threat Division, now finds himself at the center of a serious espionage case—and the motivations, according to prosecutors, are purely political.

Court documents reveal that Laatsch, disillusioned with the current administration under President Donald Trump, reached out to what he believed was a foreign government’s intelligence contact in March 2025. In reality, he was corresponding with an undercover FBI agent. His motivation, chillingly unambiguous:

“I do not agree or align with the values of this administration,” Laatsch allegedly wrote, adding that he was “willing to share classified information” to support what he viewed as the former values of the United States.

Laatsch promised to hand over “completed intelligence products, some unprocessed intelligence, and other assorted classified documentation.”

This wasn’t a case of being duped or manipulated. Laatsch was methodical.

According to the DOJ, Laatsch began transcribing classified information by hand at his secured DIA workstation. Over a span of days in May, he exfiltrated the material, folding the notes and concealing them in his clothing. He then transferred the contents onto a thumb drive, which he deposited in a public park in northern Virginia—believing it would be retrieved by the foreign government.

FBI agents recovered the drive and confirmed it contained documents marked Secret and Top Secret, along with a message from Laatsch outlining his desire to demonstrate the range of information he could access. His message made it clear: this was just a sample.

The thumb drive wasn’t the end of it. In a follow-up message dated May 7, Laatsch told the undercover agent he wanted “citizenship for your country” in return for continued cooperation, citing his belief that conditions in the U.S. were deteriorating. Though he said he was open to “other compensation,” he insisted he wasn’t driven by money—this was ideological.

“I do not see the trajectory of things changing,” he wrote. “And do not think it is appropriate or right to do nothing when I am in this position.”

By May 27, he had made several additional transfers, again sneaking handwritten notes out of his secure DIA environment—notes that contained sensitive national defense information.

Laatsch was arrested on May 30 in northern Virginia. The DOJ has charged him with unlawful retention and attempted transmission of national defense information, among other espionage-related crimes. He appeared in federal court in Alexandria on May 31.

FBI officials emphasized the gravity of the case:

“This case underscores the persistent risk of insider threats,” said FBI Director Kash Patel in a statement. “Protecting our nation’s secrets remains one of our highest priorities.”

While the DOJ has not disclosed the identity of the foreign nation Laatsch believed he was aiding, it confirmed that the country is considered friendly—a reminder that even allies can be leveraged in intelligence collection.

Unlike traditional espionage driven by greed, coercion, or ideological loyalty to a hostile state, Laatsch’s motive appears rooted in disdain for the current administration and a sense of personal moral obligation to act against it. This adds a dangerous dimension to the insider threat landscape, where partisan rage can mutate into betrayal.

And with Laatsch’s role in the Insider Threat Division, the irony is stark: the man tasked with detecting internal breaches became the very security vulnerability he was supposed to stop.

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