US EditionEx-US adviser arrested over secret documents
Ashley Tellis possessed over 1,000 pages of classified defense documents and was monitored for years meeting Chinese officials, raising concerns about national security risks, U.S. DOJ said.
- On October 11, Ashley J. Tellis was taken into custody following an FBI seizure at his Vienna, Virginia home and charged with unlawful retention of national defence information under 18 U.S.C. § 793.
- Investigators say they found more than 1,000 pages of classified documents marked TOP SECRET and SECRET in his home and recorded a September 12, 2025 login to a Department of Defense secure computer.
- Court filings document four meetings in 2022, 2023, 2024 and on September 2, 2025 with PRC officials in Fairfax, Virginia, while surveillance video shows him leaving government facilities with a briefcase; the affidavit does not accuse him of providing classified material.
- Think tanks in the U.S. and India quickly removed his expert listings after the arrest, The Asia Group terminated his contract on Tuesday, October 14, 2025, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace placed him on leave while officials declined comment.
- Ashley J. Tellis is a longstanding figure in U.S.-India policy circles who served under Robert Blackwill and on the White House National Security Council, and whose recent writings urging closer defence ties upset New Delhi.
27 Articles
27 Articles
Ashley Tellis arrest marks US-India point of no return
The October 11 arrest of Ashley J Tellis, a towering figure in US-India relations, by the US Department of Justice has reverberated with shock and disbelief in diplomatic and strategic circles in Washington and New Delhi. The DOJ charged Tellis, a 64-year-old India-born strategist, with illegally possessing thousands of classified national security documents and holding […] The post Ashley Tellis arrest marks US-India point of no return appeared…
US adviser for India charged over ‘classified docs, China ties’
WASHINGTON: A well-known US scholar on India who advised the US government was charged with retaining classified information and allegedly met Chinese officials, prosecutors have said. Ashley Tellis, 64, who has worked in or advised the US government for more than two decades, was found to have kept more than 1,000 pages of top-secret or secret documents in his home, a criminal affidavit said on Tuesday. Late in the evening of Sept 25, Tellis en…
Arrested Indian-Origin Expert Ashley Tellis Denies Charges Over Secret Files
A prominent US scholar of India who was arrested after allegations of retaining classified documents and meeting Chinese officials is denying the charges against him, his lawyers said Wednesday.
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