Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Aleading U.S.-India relations expert and U.S. government adviser arrested over handling of classified documents will vigorously contest the allegations, and specifically any insinuation that he operated on behalf of a foreign adversary, his lawyers said on October 15.
Ashley Tellis, 64, who served on the National Security Council of former Republican President George W. Bush and is listed in an FBI court affidavit as an unpaid adviser to the State Department and a Pentagon contractor, was arrested on the weekend and charged on October 13 with “unlawful retention of national defense information.”
An FBI affidavit accompanying the charge said that in September and October Tellis was observed in Pentagon and State Department buildings accessing and printing classified documents, including about military aircraft capabilities. The affidavit said a search of Tellis’ residence in Vienna, Virginia, last week uncovered more than a thousand pages of classified documents with top secret and secret markings.
