Ashley Tellis, a well-known US policy expert of Indian origin who has long advised on South Asia affairs, has been arrested for allegedly keeping secret government documents and meeting officials from China, according to newly released court filings.
The US Justice Department has said that the 64-year-old unlawfully held information pertaining to national defence, which included over a thousand pages of top-secret and classified documents discovered at his home in Vienna, Virginia.
Who is Ashley Tellis?
Born in Mumbai, Ashley Tellis has served as a consultant for the US State Department and has held many significant positions in the US government since 2001. Tellis previously served on the National Security Council during US President George W Bush’s term. According to an FBI affidavit, he is also listed as an unpaid adviser to the State Department and a contractor for the Pentagon’s Office of Net Assessment.
A veteran policy strategist, Tellis has studied at St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai and later did a master’s and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Chicago. Over time, he became a well-known figure in the US-India-China policy space, often seen on discussion panels and widely respected for his analysis and writings in Washington, New Delhi, and Beijing.
Tellis is now accused of taking classified documents from secure offices and meeting with Chinese officials since 2023. A specialist in India and South Asian issues, Tellis currently holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Tellis accused of breaching national security
According to the court documents, Tellis accessed, printed and took classified files in September and October this year from the Defence and State Department offices of the US. According to reports, security cameras captured him leaving one of the buildings with a leather briefcase after printing documents about US military aircraft capabilities.
When investigators searched his home on October 11, they found secret papers kept in different places like inside locked filing cabinets, a desk in his basement office, and even in black trash bags stored in a separate room.
Officials have said that Tellis cooperated during the search as at one point he unlocked his laptop with his fingerprint and himself handed over the keys to the cabinets.
Tellis’ meeting with Chinese officials gather further attention
The case has gained further attention because Tellis is accused of meeting Chinese government officials several times in recent years. Prosecutors have said that Tellis met them on multiple occasions, including one meeting in September 2022 at a restaurant in Virginia, where he was seen carrying a manila envelope. In another meeting on April 11 in 2023, authorities said Tellis and the officials were overheard discussing China’s ties with Iran and new technology developments while having dinner at a restaurant.