MD Spy Case: Accused Wife Must Stay In Prison, Can't Wait At Home With Kids Until Trial

ANNAPOLIS, MD — A Maryland woman accused in an espionage case will stay in prison until her trial, The Washington Post reported. Journalist Devlin Barrett noted that a federal judge made the ruling Thursday, claiming she was a flight risk. Barrett added that the suspect, 45-year-old Diana Toebbe, wanted to go home to her two children until the trial.

Diana Toebbe is half of the Annapolis couple that was arrested earlier this month on espionage-related charges, the U.S. Department of Justice announced. Officials identified the other suspect as 42-year-old Jonathan Toebbe.

Authorities accused the duo of trying to sell restricted government data to a person who they thought was a representative of another country. Prosecutors disclosed that the buyer was really an undercover FBI agent.

The secret information contained details on the design of nuclear-powered warships, the government said. Toebbe is a nuclear engineer for the Department of the Navy who had a national security clearance through the Department of Defense, a news release said.

Prosecutors alleged that Jonathan Toebbe on April 1, 2020, sent a foreign government a sample of the restricted data and instructions on how to covertly buy more information. The undercover agent and Jonathan Toebbe communicated through encrypted emails for several months to organize multiple sales worth thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency.

The agent sent a $10,000 "good faith" cryptocurrency payment on June 8, 2021, officials said.

The incident report said the couple then went to West Virginia on June 26 to drop an encrypted SD card hidden in half a peanut butter sandwich. Jonathan Toebbe hid the sandwich while Diana Toebbe was on the lookout. That deal netted a $20,000 cryptocurrency payment in exchange for the decryption key.

Jonathan Toebbe placed another SD card hidden in a chewing gum package in eastern Virginia on Aug. 28 for $70,000 in cryptocurrency, the prosecution said.

The FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service arrested the suspects Oct. 9 in Jefferson County, West Virginia, after Jonathan Toebbe planted another SD card in the state, authorities said.

Officials charged the Toebbes with violating the Atomic Energy Act. Both suspects pleaded not guilty Wednesday, The Washington Post reported, mentioning that only Diana Toebbe asked to head home to their kids.

"The work of the FBI, Department of Justice prosecutors, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the Department of Energy was critical in thwarting the plot charged in the complaint and taking this first step in bringing the perpetrators to justice," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in the release.

To learn more about the Toebbes, check out this story from The Washington Post.

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• MD Couple Faces Espionage Charges Over Secret Data: FBI

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