Couple Pleads Not Guilty in Spy Case as Prosecutors Lay Out New Details - The New York Times

Jonathan and Diana Toebbe planned for years to sell classified materials about submarine technology to a foreign government and were seeking as much as $5 million, the prosecution said in court.

WASHINGTON — A Maryland couple facing espionage charges spent years collecting classified information, planning to sell it to a foreign country for as much as $5 million in cryptocurrency and then leave the United States, according to material laid out by prosecutors and the F.B.I.

agent read what he said were excerpts from encrypted messages between the couple, Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, from 2019, before they reached out to the foreign country and as they considered whether to sell the secret information about the nuclear reactors that power Virginia-class nuclear submarines.

Toebbe, the agent said, responded: “I have no problem with any of it.

The Toebbes are accused of attempting to sell closely held secrets of America’s submarine technology to an undisclosed foreign government.

still does not know the whereabouts of most of the information an agent said the Toebbes were offering to sell to the foreign government.

MacMahon argued that various documents collected in the case showed that his client wanted to leave the country if former President Donald J.

MacMahon said.

portrayed the Toebbes as beginning to make plans to sell American secrets as early as 2018.

Prosecutors also said in court proceedings that the foreign country that had received the offer to sell the information voluntarily turned it over to the F.B.I., setting off the investigation into the Toebbes.

agent who surveilled the couple, Peter Olinits, told the court that a letter sent by the Toebbes to the foreign government offering the classified material set a December deadline for hearing back, saying that otherwise they would offer the information to other countries.

As a result, he said, federal agents, impersonating officials from the foreign government, began communicating with the Toebbes that month.

Olinits told the court.

“This information was slowly and carefully collected over several years in the normal course of my job to avoid attracting attention and smuggled past security checkpoints, a few pages at a time,” the note on the memory card said, according to Mr.

Olinits said the government did not know how Mr.

Smolar, said that during the first dead drop both of the Toebbes went to significant lengths to see if anyone was following them, walking more than a mile and a half from where they parked their car, dressing as hikers and bringing a camera to blend in with other people in the area.

Olinits said he observed Mr.

Prosecutors showed videos taken from the first of the four dead drops allegedly used by the Toebbes.

Olinits said the Toebbes showed good tradecraft, dropping the information quickly, then walking away in a manner intended to try to detect anyone following them.

Olinits said the Toebbes had a “go bag” with a computer, latex gloves and a USB drive.

MacMahon said his client was planning a trip in February to the Bahamas and was renewing her passport for that travel