US accuses foreign policy expert of illegally keeping secret docs

Ashley Tellis, a US foreign policy expert with access to top secret information, has been charged with unlawfully retaining classified national defence documents and allegedly meeting with Chinese government officials on multiple occasions, according to court documents seen by HT.

- Shashank Mattoo

Tellis born in India and now a naturalised US citizen who has served as an adviser to the State department since 2001, was charged on October 13 in a Virginia district court with violating federal law governing the retention of national defence information, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed by the FBI.

The 64-year-old is widely considered one of America’s most prominent experts on India and played a key role in the US-India civil nuclear deal talks in the mid-2000s.