(Washington Insider Magazine) -The Department of Justice has revealed that the couple were attempting to sell information to a foreign government. However, while the Toebbes thought they were contacting a foreign representative with the desire to build nuclear-powered warships, it was actually an undercover agent from the FBI.
Toebbe reportedly enclosed a sample of the nuclear secrets in a package back in June 2020, sending it to who he believed was a foreign government representative. For a number of months, he also sent emails back and forth with the undercover agent, asking for money in exchange for the information. The FBI sent Toebbe $10,000 in cryptocurrency in 2021.
Jonathan and his wife moved to West Virginia in 2021 and he made arrangements to drop off an SD card at different locations, revealing more and more information pertaining to the nuclear secrets in exchange for payment. By the end of the operation, the FBI had paid Toebbe $70,000 in cryptocurrency.
Jonathan and Diana were arrested on espionage-related charges for breaking the Atomic Energy Act. This act is there to protect the “utilization of atomic energy for peaceful purposes to the maximum extent consistent with the common defense and security and with the health and safety of the public.”
Jonathan Toebbe is a former employee of the Department of the Navy, where he served as a nuclear engineer and worked under the Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program. It was under this program that he first learned the nuclear secrets he and his wife eventually attempted to sell.
On October 12, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe appeared in court, with Attorney General Merrick B. Garland stating: “The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice.”
