DIA Employee gets detained after attempted leak on trump
(MENAFN) A 28-year-old IT employee with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has been taken into custody, accused of attempting to pass classified information to a foreign power due to his dissatisfaction with Leader Donald Trump’s administration, according to official sources.
The individual, Nathan Vilas Laatsch of Alexandria, Virginia, now faces charges after he allegedly tried to hand over sensitive government data to someone he believed was working on behalf of a foreign state. The arrest followed an undercover FBI operation designed to confirm his intentions.
Having served in the DIA’s Insider Threat Division since 2019, Laatsch is said to have acted out of ideological opposition to Trump-era policies. In an intercepted message, he reportedly wrote, “The recent actions of the current administration are extremely disturbing to me. I do not agree or align with the values of this administration and intend to act to support the values that the United States at one time stood for.”
Investigators launched their probe in March after receiving a tip about Laatsch’s potential plans, according to officials. Undercover agents, who posed as foreign operatives, engaged with him over time. During these interactions, Laatsch allegedly began copying classified information by hand while at his desk over the course of three days. To avoid detection, he is accused of hiding the handwritten notes in his socks and lunchbox before exiting the secure facility.
Authorities say that on May 1, he deposited a USB device containing documents marked both ‘Secret’ and ‘Top Secret’ at a location in a public park in northern Virginia, as had been arranged during his contact with undercover operatives. Prosecutors further allege that Laatsch expressed a desire to become a citizen of the foreign country he thought he was helping, stating he did not believe “things here to improve in the long term.”
Laatsch was apprehended at another planned drop-off site a few weeks later. He is scheduled to appear in a federal courtroom in Alexandria to face charges related to attempted espionage and the unauthorized handling of classified materials.
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