The Justice Department’s announcement of the Abraham Lemma guilty plea on Tuesday names an agency that the 2023 coverage of his arrest we reviewed did not. Lemma, a 53-year-old Maryland IT contractor, is now described as having worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, the agency that builds and flies America’s spy satellites, along with the State Department and the Justice Department. When the FBI charged him in 2023, reporting on the affidavit said only that he worked for “another undisclosed federal agency” before landing at State.
The second detail that matters: this case started with a military leak. In 2023, the State Department said it found Lemma’s possible removal of classified material during a 60-day security review ordered after a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was arrested for leaking military secrets. One airman’s breach led investigators to a civilian contractor who, by his own admission, was feeding Top Secret material to a foreign government during a war.
What the plea papers say Lemma did
According to the Justice Department’s plea announcement, Lemma pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to one count: conspiracy to transmit national defense information to a foreign government. The foreign government is Ethiopia.
The department says that from 2021 until his arrest in August 2023, Lemma worked with “senior Ethiopian government officials” to collect and pass along “dozens of highly classified documents, notes, materials, and photographs.” Some of it was classified up to Top Secret with Sensitive Compartmented Information controls, the highest tier most cleared workers ever touch.
His methods were not high tech. He wrote classified information down by hand and walked the notes out of secure buildings. As an IT administrator, he also pulled electronic copies out of classified systems and carried them out, the release says.
The most damning lines are his own. On Dec. 18, 2021, prosecutors say, Lemma told one of his Ethiopian contacts: “We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia.” Later that day he shared more information and wrote, “Please send Dro[nes].”
Assistant Attorney General John A. Eisenberg said Lemma “betrayed the United States to an extraordinary degree.” The FBI Washington Field Office ran the investigation, and the case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the department’s National Security Division.
The agency 2023 court papers left unnamed
Back in 2023, the Washington Times reported what the FBI affidavit laid out about his work history. He worked for an undisclosed federal agency from November 2020 to December 2021, gained SCI access in July 2021, worked with the State Department, and started at the Justice Department in May 2022.
Tuesday’s release lists the NRO among his past employers. The department has not said whether the NRO is that unnamed agency, or when he worked there. But it means a man who later admitted spying for a foreign government had a contractor badge at the agency that runs the country’s reconnaissance satellites. The 2023 affidavit, as reported then, said the material he sent included satellite photos.
From a possible death sentence to 10 to 22 years
The original 2023 charges were heavier. NBC News reported at the time that he was charged with delivering national defense information to aid a foreign government, conspiracy to do so, and willful retention of national defense information. The Washington Times reported the top charge carried a possible sentence of death or life in prison.
The plea narrows all of that to one conspiracy count. If the judge accepts the deal, Lemma will serve between 120 and 262 months, roughly 10 to 22 years. Sentencing is set for April 14, 2027.
That is a long sentence. It is also a long way from life. The release does not say whether Lemma agreed to cooperate.
How a Guardsman’s leak led investigators to Lemma
The Guardsman was Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts airman who posted classified military documents online in 2023 and was later sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. After his arrest, agencies across the government re-checked who could see what. NBC reported that the State Department’s review is where Lemma’s possible removal of classified information first surfaced.
Look at that from a military family’s side. A junior airman’s leak forced a security sweep, and the sweep turned up a contractor sending intelligence on a foreign war to that war’s government. Nothing in the public record says when he would have been caught otherwise.
Same week, another cleared contractor charged at Fort Bragg
Lemma’s plea landed one week after a second contractor case. On Oct. 27, the FBI arrested James Thomas Ashbacher, 37, of Spring Lake, North Carolina. Prosecutors accuse him of posting videos and photos of classified military operations to social media while working for a private security contractor at a U.S. Army Special Operations Command facility at Fort Bragg, according to a Justice Department release.
Prosecutors say Ashbacher held a Top Secret clearance with SCI access and asked another user to pull some posts because he was “trying to do some damage control.” He is accused, not convicted, and is presumed innocent.
The two cases are different. One is admitted espionage for a foreign government. The other is an accused leak to the open internet. What they share is the job title: a private contractor holding the same top-tier clearance as the people whose operations they could see.
What the Abraham Lemma guilty plea leaves out
A lot of what readers will want to know is not in the public announcement:
- Money. In 2023, the Washington Times reported bank deposits of more than $55,000 that investigators suspected were payments from the foreign government. Tuesday’s release does not mention payments at all.
- The war. The release says much of the material concerned “an armed conflict in Ethiopia” but never names it. The 2021 to 2023 timeline overlaps the war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.
- The drones. The release quotes “Please send Dro[nes]” but does not tie that message to any specific strike or death.
- The other side of the deal. No Ethiopian official is named or charged, and the release does not say what, if anything, Washington has raised with Ethiopia’s government.
- The NRO question. Which years he worked there, what he could reach, and whether NRO material was part of what he passed are not addressed.
What happens next
The judge still has to accept the plea agreement and its sentencing range. Sentencing is April 14, 2027. Ashbacher’s case moves through federal court in North Carolina, where he has not been tried.
We have been tracking classified-information prosecutions this fall, including the charges against former FBI Director James Comey and the guilty plea of ex-CIA official David Rush. More is on our National Security page.
Questions readers are asking
Who is Abraham Lemma?
Abraham Teklu Lemma, 53, of Maryland, is a former IT contractor who worked at the National Reconnaissance Office, the State Department and the Justice Department. He held a Top Secret clearance and pleaded guilty on Nov. 3, 2026, to conspiring to pass national defense information to Ethiopia’s government.
What did Abraham Lemma give Ethiopia?
The Justice Department says he passed dozens of classified documents, notes, materials and photographs, some at the Top Secret/SCI level, much of it about an armed conflict in Ethiopia. He carried handwritten notes and electronic copies out of secure facilities.
How much prison time does he face?
Under the plea agreement, between 120 and 262 months, about 10 to 22 years, if the judge accepts it. Sentencing is scheduled for April 14, 2027.
How was he caught?
In 2023, the State Department said it found the possible improper removal of classified information during a 60-day security review ordered after a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was arrested for leaking classified military documents.
Two cleared contractors in one week, and the only reason we know about the first one is that an airman leaked documents first. That tells me the system finds these people by accident, not by design. Contractors do real work and most of them are as loyal as anyone in uniform, but the clearance process should be checking them as hard after the badge is issued as before. The troops whose operations end up on a screen deserve that much. I want to hear from Congress on how many reviews like the one that caught Lemma have been run since 2023, and what they found.
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Rocci J. Stucci is the founder and CEO of Stucci Media and host of The Rocci Stucci Show.
