The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on October 22 has ordered the pre-trial release of Ashley Tellis, an Indian-American who was arrested recently for allegedly passing on sensitive information to Chinese officials.
Tellis has been ordered to be kept under home detention, with electronic surveillance.
Tellis was arrested on October 14, 2025, for allegedly retaining over 1,000 pages of classified US national defence information at his Virginia residence, violating 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).
Tellis, a well-known ‘foreign policy expert’ often featured by Leftist media portals for his opinions on India, has been a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment and a former National Security Council advisor on South Asia. He is currently facing charges from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Court documents shared by journalist Sougat Chakraborty in Tellis’ case reveal stringent release conditions, including DNA submission and court appearance mandates.
Breaking Development ?
— Sougat Chakraborty (@sougat18) October 22, 2025
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia has ordered the release of Ashley Tellis, who will be placed under Home Detention and will be location monitored. See the thread ?for more details. pic.twitter.com/ByqiNHNWKr
As per reports, Tellis’ lawyers cited his deep US ties, ‘distinguished career’, and health concerns to mitigate flight risk. The defence also claimed that the FBI overlooked exculpatory evidence. Tellis has reportedly conveyed that he would fully cooperate with the investigation.
As per an affidavit filed FBI special agent Jeffrey Scott, Tellis held Top Secret security clearance with access to ‘sensitive compartmented information’.
According to the federal prosecutors, during the raid at Tellis’s Vienna residence, investigators “located over a thousand pages of paper documents with classification markings at the Top Secret and/or Secret levels”.
