Ex-NSA employee pleads guilty to trying to spy for Russia

A cyber specialist who briefly worked at the top-secret US National Security Agency (NSA) pleaded guilty on Monday to attempting to spy for Russia, the Justice Department said.

Jareh Sebastian Dalke, 31, spent less than four weeks working at the NSA, the United States government's huge and powerful signals intelligence agency, before he suddenly quit, citing family problems at the end of June last year.

In the few weeks he was at the NSA, he printed out top secret documents, and after leaving he offered them for sale in encrypted online communications to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent, the Justice Department said.

He was actually dealing with an undercover FBI agent.

Dalke, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, pleaded guilty in US District Court to six counts of attempting to transmit classified national defense information to an agent of a foreign government.

Sentencing was set for April 26, 2024. Dalke faces a maximum of life in prison.