A civilian Navy engineer and his wife will each spend about 20 years in prison for offering to sell information about the design of nuclear-powered warships to a foreign government, the Justice Department said Wednesday after they were sentenced in federal court.
Jonathan Toebbe, 44, of Annapolis, was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison. His wife, Diana Toebbe, 46, was sentenced to more than 21 years. The couple pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to communicate restricted data in August.
Jonathan Toebbe was an engineer assigned to the Navy’s nuclear propulsion program. His security clearance gave him access to sensitive information, including the performance characteristics of the reactors for nuclear-powered warships, the Justice Department said.
“The Toebbes betrayed the American people and put our national security at significant risk when they selfishly attempted to sell highly sensitive information related to nuclear-powered warships for their own financial benefit,” said special agent Brice Miller of the Navy Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Office of Special Projects.
Jonathan Toebbe sent a package to an unidentified foreign government containing a sample of restricted data and instructions for establishing a covert relationship so it could buy more U.S. nuclear secrets.
Through encrypted email, Toebbe began corresponding with someone he thought was a foreign government official. But the person was actually an undercover FBI agent, the Justice Department said.
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After several months of correspondence, Toebbe agreed to sell restricted data in exchange for thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.
FBI agents arrested the couple in October 2021 after they made multiple “dead drops” of sensitive nuclear secrets at locations in Virginia and West Virginia. In one spot, they left a computer memory card hidden inside a peanut butter sandwich while another was concealed in a chewing gum wrapper.
They were eventually paid about $100,000 in cryptocurrency, the Justice Department said.
The case took on a political cast when lawyers for Diana Toebbe argued the couple had been considering leaving the country well before the spying operation began because of their dislike for then-President Trump. As part of a plea that their client was not a flight risk because of the legal case, Diana Toebbe’s lawyers released emails from early 2019 showing her deep unhappiness with the state of the country under Mr. Trump.
“The entire system is rigged,” she wrote in one March 2019 text to her husband, adding, “We need to get out.” She even referenced a program by the French government welcoming science “refugees” from around the world to come settle in France.
The texts show Jonathan Toebbe trying to calm his wife, in part by insisting that Mr. Trump was on course to lose his reelection race in 2000.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.
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