US arrests India-born State Dept staff Ashley Tellis over China links, secret docs

A US State Department employee, who was a scholar in Indian and South Asian affairs, has been arrested for retaining classified documents and meeting Chinese officials dating back to 2023.

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.

It seems Ashley Tellis has already been arrested.

"Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, announced today that Ashley Tellis, 64, of Vienna, VA, was arrested over the weekend and charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national… pic.twitter.com/AYGZ01KJzW

— Sreemoy Talukdar (@sreemoytalukdar) October 14, 2025

Who is Tellis?

According to the Justice Department, Tellis, born in India, was an unpaid senior advisor to the State Department and also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense.

Tellis joined the State Department in 2001 and is accused of retrieving and retaining national defence information, according to an affidavit.

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He is also a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served in senior positions under former president George W. Bush.

He helped negotiate the Bush administration’s civil nuclear deal with India that was seen as a landmark in building ties between the world’s two largest democracies.

But in recent years, Tellis has become known as one of the most outspoken contrarians in Washington on the US courtship of India.

What was found?

Owing to his affiliations, Tellis held top-secret clearance and had access to sensitive documents. During a search at his Vienna, Va., home, authorities found a thousand pages of documents marked “TOP SECRET” and “SECRET.”

The affidavit states that Tellis instructed a coworker at a government facility to print multiple classified documents for him on September 12.

Late in the evening of September 25, Tellis entered the State Department, where he served as an unpaid advisor, and appeared to print from a secret document on US Air Force techniques.

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Tellis met multiple times with Chinese government officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.

At one dinner, Tellis entered with a manila envelope but did not appear to leave with it, and on two occasions, the Chinese officials presented him a gift bag, the affidavit said.

What awaits Tellis?

Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the charges of unlawfully holding documents, the Justice Department said.

“The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for Virginia’s Eastern District, who has become known for pursuing charges against critics of President Donald Trump.

The State Department confirmed that Tellis was arrested Saturday – the same day the affidavit said he was due to fly to Rome – but declined further comment due to the ongoing investigation.

With inputs from agencies