The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has placed Ashley J. Tellis on administrative leave following his arrest on charges of unlawfully retaining classified U.S. defense documents and allegedly maintaining contact with Chinese officials.
“We are aware of the allegations against Ashley J. Tellis. He is now on administrative leave, including from his role as Tata Chair,” Carnegie told journalist Shashank Mattoo of Hindustan Times.
BREAKING: Ashley Tellis has been put on leave as Tata Chair at Carnegie Endowment after accusation of links to China
— Shashank Mattoo (@MattooShashank) October 15, 2025
“We are aware of the allegations against Ashley J. Tellis. He is now on administrative leave, including from his role as Tata Chair,” Carnegie tells me pic.twitter.com/N11UuyvfQp
Tellis, 64, a prominent India-born American foreign policy expert and long-time adviser to the U.S. government, was arrested on October 13 after a federal investigation uncovered over a thousand classified documents at his home in Vienna, Virginia. He was charged in a Virginia district court with violating the U.S. federal law that prohibits the unlawful retention of national defense information.
A naturalised U.S. citizen, Tellis has been one of the most influential voices in Washington’s India policy establishment. He was instrumental in shaping the India–U.S. civil nuclear deal during the George W. Bush administration and held senior roles at the State Department and the Department of Defense. Until his arrest, he was also serving as a senior fellow at Carnegie and an unpaid senior adviser at the U.S. State Department.
FBI finds classified files at Tellis’s home
According to an FBI affidavit filed in court, federal agents executing a search warrant on October 11 discovered more than 1,000 pages of classified documents marked Top Secret or Secret in Tellis’s residence. Investigators reported that the files were stored in multiple locations, including locked filing cabinets, a desk, and even in three large black plastic bags kept in an unfinished basement storage room.
Tellis, who held Top Secret/SCI (Sensitive Compartmented Information) clearance, allegedly accessed classified systems at the State Department’s headquarters on September 25. Surveillance footage reportedly showed him printing hundreds of pages from restricted databases, including a 1,288-page file on U.S. Air Force operational tactics. The FBI claims Tellis renamed the file “Econ Reform” before printing it and subsequently deleted the digital copy.
Alleged meetings with Chinese officials
The affidavit further alleges that Tellis met with Chinese government officials on several occasions between September 2022 and September 2025. These meetings, which reportedly took place in restaurants in Fairfax, Virginia, were described by investigators as “unofficial and undisclosed.”
In one instance, on September 15, 2022, Tellis was seen entering a restaurant carrying a manila envelope, which was “no longer in his possession” when he left, the affidavit states. The FBI also cited audio surveillance indicating that discussions at these meetings covered sensitive geopolitical topics, including U.S.-Pakistan relations and Iran-China cooperation.
Travel plans interrupted by FBI raid
On the day federal agents executed the search warrant, Tellis was reportedly preparing to fly to Rome for a work engagement with his family. His arrest followed just hours after the raid concluded.
