DIA employee pleads guilty after admitting he attempted to provide classified national defense information to a foreign government, according to federal prosecutors.
Officials said Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 29, of Alexandria, Virginia, a former Defense Intelligence Agency IT specialist with a Top Secret clearance, entered a guilty plea to transmission of national defense information.
Attorney General Todd Blanche said government personnel entrusted with classified material must safeguard it and that Laatsch faces serious consequences for violating his position of trust. Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said disclosing national defense information to a foreign government is a serious crime, not a form of dissent. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Theophani K. Stamos for the Eastern District of Virginia said political disagreement does not justify jeopardizing U.S. security and that the office will prosecute those who compromise national security.
FBI Counterintelligence and Espionage Division Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky said Laatsch admitted offering classified information for personal gain, including seeking foreign citizenship, and that the FBI will continue to hold violators accountable.
DIA employee pleads guilty after FBI sting
Court filings state Laatsch joined the DIA in 2019 and worked in the agency’s Insider Threat Division. In March 2025, the FBI learned he had offered to provide classified information to a friendly foreign government.
He then began communicating with someone he believed was connected to that government, who was in fact an FBI agent.
By late April 2025, according to the documents, Laatsch transcribed classified information onto a notepad at his desk over roughly three days and removed the material from his workspace multiple times.
He deposited the information on a thumb drive at a public park in northern Virginia for retrieval. The FBI recovered the drive, which held multiple typed documents containing classified information up to the Secret and Top Secret levels.
The drive also included a message from Laatsch stating he had provided a “decent sample size” to show the range of products he could access.
After being told the drop had been received, Laatsch expressed interest in obtaining “citizenship” from the foreign country. He added he was not opposed to other compensation but did not require material payment.
A week later, in mid-May 2025, the FBI agent indicated readiness to receive additional material. Between May 15 and May 27, 2025, Laatsch again transcribed pages of notes while logged into his classified workstation and removed them concealed in his clothing, according to the filings.
On May 29, 2025, he arrived at a prearranged location in northern Virginia and again transmitted multiple classified documents. He was arrested after the FBI received the documents.
Laatsch is scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 27, 2027. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
A federal district judge will determine the sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The FBI Washington Field Office is leading the investigation with assistance from the FBI’s Global Counterespionage Unit and the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Officials also thanked the Defense Intelligence Agency for its cooperation.
Trial Attorney Mark Murphy of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Kromberg of the Eastern District of Virginia are prosecuting the case.
Related filings can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER under Case No. 1:25-cr-156.
The case is part of a series of recent federal national security prosecutions, including matters such as an ISIS-inspired plot at the New York State Capitol, that have drawn scrutiny to how authorities track insider threats and extremist activity.