Who is Ashley Tellis, US State Department adviser accused of removing classified US govt documents and meeting with Chinese officials

Ashley Tellis, a senior adviser to the US State Department has been accused of illegally removing classified documents from secure government locations. Tellis, a known foreign policy expert and defence strategist of Indian origin, is also accused of holding meetings with Chinese officials dating back to 2023.

On 14^th October, the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia informed that Ashley Tellis has been arrested on charge of “unlawfully retaining classified national defence information”. Tellis was arrested on 11^th October after the US authorities searched his residence in Vienna, Virginia.

In a statement, Lindsey Halligan, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said that Ashley Tellis of Vienna was “arrested over the weekend and charged by criminal complaint with the unlawful retention of national defense information, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).”

“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served,” the statement reads.

Notably, Ashley Tellis, a naturalised US citizen of Indian origin, served as an unpaid senior adviser to the State Department. He was also a contractor with the Office of Net Assessment at the Department of Defense (DOD).

As per an affidavit filed FBI special agent Jeffrey Scott, Tellis held Top Secret security clearance with access to ‘sensitive compartmented information’.

According to the federal prosecutors, during the raid at Tellis’s Vienna residence, investigators “located over a thousand pages of paper documents with classification markings at the Top Secret and/or Secret levels”.

How Ashley Tellis removed classified documents from secure compartmented information facility

Back in 2001, Ashley Tellis signed a Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement with the U.S. government, however, he allegedly violated this agreement by removing classified materials from the Secured Compartmented Information Facility.

Tellis’s activities came under scanner after he was observed via video surveillance inside the Mark Center, a DOD facility in Virginia, entering a SCIF utilized by Office of Net Assessment (ONA) on 12^th September 2025. Computer records indicated Ashley Tellis used a computer at an identified cubicle and had a co-worker print multiple classified documents for him that day.

“Later that evening, after TELLIS departed, investigators located two Redweld file pockets, both labeled “TELLIS,” in the cubicle TELLIS had used. The documents contained in the Redweld file pockets included the documents printed by the co-worker for TELLIS earlier that day, including a document classified at the TOP SECRET level,” the affidavit filed by FBI agent Scott reads.

In another instance of alleged removal of classified material, Ashley Tellis arrived the Department of State’s HST building on 25^th September. He entered the office of the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs suite 5247 and logged onto “Classnet,” DOS’s SECRET-level computer system. He stayed for approximately one hour and then departed DOS.

“Later in the evening, Tellis returned to the HST building carrying a leather briefcase and logged on to Classnet. Tellis opened a PDF file from the desktop with a filename that referenced adversary fighter aircraft and the year 2024. The file opened as a 1288-page document with a title that referred to U.S. Air Force tactics techniques and procedures. The document had a Department of the Air Force Seal at the top and banner markings at the top and bottom that read SECRET//r Foreign Government Information/Risk Sensitive Notice/NOFORN//Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,” the affidavit reads.

Tellis re-saved the PDF as “Econ Reform”, opened the print window and entered “59- 172” in the “pages” window. He made multiple attempts to print the select pages of the sensitive document, however, the document did not print. Later, he opened an unclassified document concerning a public speech by a U.S. government official and printed the document. Minutes later, he reopened the “Econ Reform” document, printed pages 943-959 and then deleted the said file.

He then allegedly opened a PDF document classified “secret” or “NOFORN” which denoted information that may not be disseminated to individuals other than U.S. persons.

The file Ashley Tellis opened was a U.S. Air Force Weapons School document concerning military aircraft capabilities. He briefly scrolled through the document and then printed all 40 pages of the document.

“At approximately 8:53 p.m., TELLIS opened a PDF document classified SECRET//NOFORN. The file opened as another U.S. Air Force Weapons School document concerning military aircraft. TELLIS printed all 40 pages of the document,” the affidavit reads.

On 10^th October, the authorities observed Tellis again inside the Mark Center inside a SCIF suite utilized by ONA and sitting at the same cubicle. He was noticed on video surveillance arriving at the cubicle carrying a leather briefcase at around 10 am. He removed several pages from a Redweld file pocket on his desk and placed a PowerPoint presentation-like document (Document A) on his desk. The affiant opine that the documents Tellis removed this time too were top secret “as it appears to be a document that was previously printed and left at the same cubicle utilized by TELLIS when TELLIS last came into the ONA SCIF on September 12, 2025.”

Tellis allegedly mixed the classified document into the pages of his notepads, kept them in his briefcase and left the office. He drove back to his home in Vienna.

Ashley Tellis and the China connection

Over the past few years, Ashley Tellis met several government officials of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) on multiple occasions, the court filing says. One such meeting took place on 15^th September 2022, wherein Tellis and multiple PRC officials met for dinner at a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia. During the meeting, Tellis brought a manila envelope, and the PRC officials entered the restaurant with a gift bag. The federal prosecutors alleged that Tellis handed over the envelope to PRC officials.

On 11^th April 2023, Tellis met with Chinese government officials at a restaurant in Virginia. During the dinner meeting, Tellis and the Chinese officials were “overheard” talking about Iranian-Chinese relations and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence.

In a similar meeting in March 2024, Tellis and the Chinese government officials discussed US-Pakistan relations.

On 2^nd September 2025, just days before Ashley Tellis allegedly began removing classified documents, Tellis and some Chinese officials dined again. This time, they allegedly gave Tellis a red gift bag.

Search at Tellis’s residence led to the discovery of classified documents

Acting on a federal court’s order, investigators conducted a search at Ashley Tellis’s residence in Virginia’s Vienna on 11^th October. During the searches, the investigators found over a thousand pages of paper documents with classification markings at the top secret or secret levels at various locations within the house.

“The documents were generally found in four locations: (1) a four-drawer locked filing cabinet in a closet in the basement home office area; (2) a two-drawer locked filing cabinet in the basement home office area; (3) in the vicinity of a desk in the basement home office area; and (4) in three large black trash bags in an unfinished storage room in the basement,” the affidavit detailed, adding that the investigators recovered a document with “secret” portion markings in the basement home office area.

If convicted, Tellis could face up to ten years in prison.

Ashley Tellis and his troubling track record

Ashley Tellis is currently the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). Interestingly, CEIP received funding from Hungarian-American investor and regime change specialist George Soros’s Open Society Foundation. Not to forget, the animosity of Soros towards the Modi government and his ambition to establish a puppet administration of his preference in New Delhi is well-known as he has openly expressed his malicious intentions regarding India on public forums. Soros has leveraged his wealth to regularly undermine India.

The CEIP has regularly been receiving funds from Soros’s Open Society Foundation. According to the group’s grants records, OSF granted lakhs of dollars to the CEIP for various purposes in around 40 such grants. In 2024, the OSF gave $3,000,000 to CEIP for “to provide general support”.

As a Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs during the George W. Bush administration, he is attributed with having played a key role in negotiating the US-Indian civil nuclear deal. He also served as a research director at the Strategic Institute of the US Army War College.

Tellis also had a significant affiliation with the RAND Corporation, a non-profit global policy think tank. His involvement predates his transition to the US government service. Ashley Tellis served as a senior policy analyst at RAND, which also received funding from the Open Society Foundations for specific projects.

Unsurprisingly, Ashley Tellis was hyped by Indian left liberal media circle. From Newsclick, a leftist propaganda portal accused of receiving Chinese funding and violating FCRA rules, to The Wire, Tellis has been a favourite of Indian left liberal cabal. Tellis appeared in one of the interviews with Karan Thapar, who enjoys support among Indian leftists and Pakistanis alike.

In his articles, and interviews, Tellis never left an opportunity to slander the Modi government. He often advocated for India to do away its strategic autonomy and align with the US as a ‘junior partner’ to counterbalance China.

As a contributor to the Foreign Affairs magazine, Tellis persistently wrote anti-India articles in the pretext expert geopolitical analysis. In one such piece titled, “India’s Great Power Delusions”, Tellis argued that India’s belief in multipolarity and strategic autonomy “may not be effective or even realistic.”

His China love also found expression in the article as he mindlessly amplified Pakistan’s unfounded claim of shooting down Indian fighter jet using Chinese defence systems, during the May conflict wherein India inflicted severe blow to the hostile neighbour in the aftermath of the Islamic terror attack in Pahalgam.

“Although India has grown in economic strength over the last two decades, it is not growing fast enough to balance China, let alone the United States, even in the long term. It will become a great power, in terms of relative GDP, by midcentury, but not a superpower. In military terms, it is the most significant conventional power in South Asia, but here, too, its advantages over its local rival are not enormous: in fighting in May, Pakistan used Chinese-supplied defense systems to shoot down Indian aircraft. With China on one side and an adversarial Pakistan on the other, India must always fear the prospect of an unpalatable two-front war,” Tellis wrote in the article published in June this year.

Unsurprisingly, Tellis also expressed his disappointment over India’s alleged embrace of ‘Hindu nationalism’ and shunning of a ‘liberal democracy’.

In December 2023, Tellis told Nikkei Asia “It would be a mistake for New Delhi to conclude that India’s importance to the U.S. strategy for balancing against China gives India the latitude to unilaterally target U.S. citizens.” He said this in the context of the alleged plot to assassinate Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Now, the arrest of Ashley Tellis for allegedly removing classified documents and spying for China has sent shockwaves in Washington’s policy circles and also triggered a discussion in India over his harshness towards Modi government’s foreign policy.