Nathan Vilas Laatsch, a former Defense Intelligence Agency IT specialist, admitted to passing national defense information to what he believed was a foreign government in a case that unfolded between March and May 2025 and ended with his arrest in late May.
Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 29, of Alexandria, Virginia, pleaded guilty this week to transmission of national defense information to a foreign government. He had been a civilian IT specialist at the Defense Intelligence Agency and worked in the Insider Threat Division.
Laatsch joined the DIA in 2019 and held a Top Secret security clearance while assigned to sensitive work monitoring insider risks. In March 2025 the FBI learned he had offered classified material to a friendly foreign government and began an investigation that put him in contact with an undercover agent.
In late April 2025 he began copying classified content to a notepad at his desk and, over roughly three days, removed that material from his workspace. After that period he placed a thumb drive containing the documents in a public park in northern Virginia for pickup by the supposed foreign handlers.
“U.S. government employees entrusted with our nation’s secrets must always protect our nation’s security, not cavalierly toss aside this responsibility out of disagreement, selfishness or greed,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Laatsch faces serious consequences for violating his position of trust. This case shows that if you unlawfully disclose national defense information, we will find you and hold you accountable to the fullest extent the law allows.”
The FBI recovered the thumb drive and found multiple typed documents marked up to Secret and Top Secret levels. The drive included a message from Laatsch saying he had included “a decent sample size” to “decently demonstrate the range of types of products” he could access.
After the first drop, Laatsch told the undercover contact he was interested in pursuing “citizenship” in the foreign country and added he was “not opposed to other compensation,” while claiming he did not need “material compensation.” Those statements undercut any suggestion that ideology alone motivated his actions.
“Laatsch’s animus toward the U.S. government gave him no license to betray the oath he took to the Constitution of the United States nor the duty he had to the men and women who put their lives on the line every day to protect our Nation,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Unlawfully disclosing national defense information to a foreign government is a serious crime, not a form of principled dissent.”
In mid-May 2025 the undercover agent signaled readiness to receive more material, and between May 15 and May 27 Laatsch again transcribed pages while logged into his classified workstation. He concealed pages in his clothing and removed them from secure space, repeating the pattern that had already drawn investigators’ attention.
“By his own admission, Laatsch betrayed his oath by offering classified information to a foreign government, the very thing he was supposed to prevent as an employee of DIA’s Insider Threat Division,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence and Espionage Division. “Those entrusted with our nation’s most sensitive information must not exploit their access for personal gain – in this case offering to sell American secrets to buy foreign citizenship. The FBI and our partners will continue to hold accountable all those who betray the trust of the American people.”
On May 29, 2025, Laatsch met at a prearranged location in northern Virginia and again transmitted classified documents; agents arrested him after receiving the materials. He has pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced on Jan. 27, 2027, facing a potential maximum penalty of life in prison, with the final term to be set by a federal judge under the Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors.
The FBI Washington Field Office led the investigation with help from the bureau’s Global Counterespionage Unit, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and cooperation from the Defense Intelligence Agency. Trial Attorney Mark Murphy of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg for the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
