Former State Department Contractor Pleads Guilty to Passing Top-Secret Intelligence to Ethiopia

Abraham Teklu Lemma, 54, of Silver Spring, Maryland, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to transmit national defense information to a foreign government, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Washington, as reported by the Associated Press via WCVB.

Lemma worked as an information technology contractor at the State Department, the Justice Department and the National Reconnaissance Office. Prosecutors said he supplied secrets to senior Ethiopian officials for more than two years, from 2021 until his arrest in August 2023, and urged them to deploy drones against fighters battling the government.

The evidence

Prosecutors cited a December 2021 message in which Lemma wrote, "We have to finish these people once and for all, otherwise there will never be peace in Ethiopia." An FBI affidavit filed in 2023 alleged he sent top-secret satellite imagery and classified reports through an encrypted messaging app. FBI counterintelligence official Roman Rozhavsky said Lemma admitted Ethiopian officials used the intelligence in military operations.

The Justice Department did not identify the operations, the armed groups targeted, or whether anyone was killed as a result.

Context

The disclosures began during Ethiopia's 2020-2022 war between federal forces and Tigrayan fighters. Researchers at Ghent University estimated 500,000 civilians died from violence, famine and the collapse of health services. Fighting resumed in September, and government-allied fighters entered Tigray's capital, Mekelle, on Oct. 4.

Sentencing

The plea agreement calls for 10 years to 21 years and 10 months in prison, subject to the court's approval. Sentencing is set for April 14, 2027.

What is still unknown

Whether any Ethiopian officials will face charges was not addressed.

The developments described above are drawn from contemporaneous reporting by WCVB/AP. As of Thursday morning, prosecutors say Abraham Teklu Lemma urged Ethiopian officials to use drones against rebels. He faces 10 to nearly 22 years. Boston Uncut will update this account if primary agencies release additional records, schedules or statements that change the public facts. Readers seeking the underlying documents should consult the linked sources, which carry the full quotations and agency attributions used here. Where allegations appear, they are labeled as allegations; where vote totals or rankings are cited, they reflect the figures published by the named outlet or agency at the time of reporting.

Coverage of "Former State Department Contractor Pleads Guilty to Passing Top-Secret Intelligence to Ethiopia" sits alongside related Massachusetts and national developments this week. The factual spine of this story remains the linked reporting; any interpretation beyond those facts is limited to describing what the record does and does not yet show. Unanswered questions noted above are not speculation — they are gaps in the public record as of the most recent updates reviewed for this article on 2026-11-05.

Public agencies and courts often release follow-up statements days after an initial announcement. This article reflects the record available Thursday. It does not assert motives that officials have not stated, does not invent quotations, and does not treat complaints or charging documents as findings of guilt. Where numbers come from unofficial election returns or preliminary investigative findings, that status is noted in the sourcing.

The account above is limited to facts published by the linked outlets and agencies as of 2026-11-05. Headline claims such as those reflected in "Former State Department Contractor Pleads Guilty to Passing Top-Secret Intelligence to Ethiopia" are traced to those sources rather than to unsourced social media or anonymous tips. Where officials have not answered a question — motive, timeline, responsible office, or next procedural step — that gap is stated as unknown rather than filled with conjecture. Readers can verify quotations and figures by following the source links; Boston Uncut does not alter quoted language except for standard ellipses noted in the original reporting when a quote was already shortened there.

Context for local readers: Prosecutors say Abraham Teklu Lemma urged Ethiopian officials to use drones against rebels. He faces 10 to nearly 22 years. That framing is descriptive, not a prediction of how courts, councils, leagues or agencies will rule. If a primary document — a docket entry, a certified tally, a signed order, an official release — later contradicts a secondary summary used here, the primary document controls and this article should be read as outdated on that point. Allegations in charging papers remain allegations until adjudicated; election returns described as unofficial remain subject to certification deadlines.

Massachusetts and Boston institutions named in this reporting — including city departments, state agencies, campus administrations and professional teams — routinely publish follow-up statements after the first-day story. This piece does not claim to anticipate those statements. It records what was knowable from the cited material on the morning it was prepared, with section subheads added only to organize confirmed facts for readers.