US govt contractor pleads guilty to spying for Ethiopia
Election
Originally published by Citizen Digital — Read the original article →
A former information technology administrator for the US federal government who had Top Secret security clearance pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to commit espionage for the Ethiopian government.
Abraham Teklu Lemma, a naturalized American citizen of Ethiopian descent, worked as an IT subcontractor at the State Department and Department of Justice before he was arrested in August 2023. He initially pleaded not guilty.
But on Tuesday Lemma pleaded guilty to disclosing national defense information to a foreign government before a federal judge in Washington. He is slated to be sentenced April 14, and faces 120 to 262 months in prison.
