Indian-American foreign policy expert Ashley Tellis, 64, who had clearance to access top-secret information, has been arrested for allegedly keeping classified national defense documents without authorization and meeting with officials from the Chinese government, according to court records reviewed by HT.

 

As per an FBI complaint and affidavit, Tellis was formally charged on October 13 in a Virginia district court for violating federal laws linked to the unlawful possession of national defense information.

 

Federal investigators carried out a court-approved search on October 11 at Tellis's residence in Vienna, Virginia. According to the affidavit filed by an FBI special agent, they discovered over a thousand pages of documents marked as top secret or secret. The materials were reportedly found inside three large black trash cabinets located in the basement office of the house.

 

Who is Ashley Tellis

 

Born in Mumbai, Tellis earned his

 

bachelor's and master's degrees from St.

 

Xavier's College, University of Bombay, before completing a Ph.D. in political science at the University of Chicago. Over his career, he has served in several senior roles, including special assistant to former US President George W. Bush on the National Security Council and senior director for strategic planning and South-West Asia. He also worked as a senior adviser to the US ambassador in New Delhi.Recognized as one of the leading American experts on India, Tellis played a crucial part in the US-India civil nuclear deal negotiations during the mid-2000s. A naturalized US citizen, he has been advising the US State Department since 2001 and holds top-secret security clearance, including access to sensitive compartmented information.

 

Currently, Tellis serves as an unpaid senior adviser at the State Department and a contractor for the Department of Defense's Office of Net Assessment. He is also a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which, according to reports, has not commented on the matter.Details from the affidavit

 

Court filings state that on September 25, surveillance footage recorded Tellis using a classified computer system at the State Department's Harry S. Truman Building, where he allegedly printed hundreds of pages from restricted files, including a 1,288-page document on US Air Force strategies. The affidavit claims Tellis renamed the file "Econ Reform" before printing selected portions and later deleted it.

 

Another video from October 10, captured at a secure facility in Alexandria, Virginia, purportedly shows Tellis concealing top-secret documents inside notepads, placing them in a leather briefcase, and exiting the building.Between September 2022 and September 2025, Tellis reportedly met Chinese officials at several restaurants in Fairfax, Virginia. During a dinner in September 2022, the affidavit notes that Tellis brought a manila envelope into the restaurant, which he did not appear to have when

 

leaving.

 

Conversations between Tellis and the Chinese officials allegedly touched upon topics such as Iran-China relations, advanced technologies like artificial intelligence, and US-Pakistan ties. At a meeting in September 2025, the Chinese representatives reportedly presented Tellis with a red gift bag.