A couple tried to sell US military secrets

The mother of the young children, Diana Toby, 45, invited a babysitter on Facebook.

She then got into the car with her husband, Jonathan, 42, to hand out military secrets hidden in a plaster box.

The United States is raising suspicions about a married middle-class couple who now risk life imprisonment.

It’s an unlikely story that unfolds in a quiet residential area of ​​Annapolis Maryland.

After an ongoing investigation since last winter, the Federal Police FBI A military engineer and his wife, a private teacher, have been arrested on suspicion of trying to sell some of the US military’s best kept secrets to foreign powers.

On Tuesday, arrest hearings against Jonathan and Diana Toby were held in a courtroom in Martinsburg, West Virginia, the state where the FBI first identified the couple during a memory card handover.

According to the suspicion, the man must have had access to the information regarding the nuclear-powered submarines through his job. It is believed that the wife was on the lookout during the handover of military secrets.

They now face life imprisonment if they do not plead guilty and settle with prosecutors.

Cheated by the FBI

Many questions remain to be clarified in the strange case in which I have received so much attention United States of America. What made a Navy engineer seemingly well-financed to sell his land? What made his wife line up on the field? Which country provided these secrets?

There is no information that the spouses will have problems in financial affairs.

The couple ended up on the FBI’s radar when they anonymously contacted foreign powers and offered secrets related to the country’s nuclear-powered submarines in exchange for large sums of money in cryptocurrency.

The secrets will be delivered offline in various places in the United States.

But the plan ended with the FBI, which began a lengthy survey process to identify and collect evidence against the couple.

Already in February, the FBI unsuccessfully tried to get a personal meeting with the unknown person who wanted to sell military secrets.

“Please, remember that I am risking my life for you and have taken the first step. Help me to be able to trust you completely,” autograph “Alice” wrote in the answer that ended up with the FBI.

But handing out memory cards in certain places led to the couple’s downfall.

Memory card hidden in plaster box

On July 28, Diana Toby searched on Facebook for a babysitter who could look after the couple’s two children for five to six hours on Saturday morning.

In the morning, they got in the car and drove to Pennsylvania to leave a memory card hidden in a gypsum box in a trash can. He writes for the New York Times.

Everything was monitored and documented by FBI agents.

On other trips, the spy couple left secrets on their intended partner’s memory cards hidden in gum paper and, on one occasion, in a peanut butter sandwich.

In the residential district of Annapolis, people are now trying to make sense of what happened.

Jonathan Toby was a former Navy officer and then employed by the Army as a nuclear physicist with experience in propulsion of submarines.

His wife Diana worked for ten years at a private school in the city where she taught history and English.

According to friends and posts on social media, she loves to knit and post pictures of kids, dogs, dinners and family holidays.

Perhaps the motive can be found in the political views of the couple.

Diana Toby is described as very liberal. She is said to have been shaken by Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election and, during his time in the White House, has spoken frequently about moving to Australia.

– She said she couldn’t stand the political climate and had already found some job opportunities there, says Craig Martin, a former student of Diana Toby, Even the New York Times.

According to the newspaper, the country with which the couple contacted is most likely an ally of the United States. According to FBI documents, the state fully cooperated with federal agents throughout the investigation, which excludes countries such as Russia and China.

The technology behind US nuclear-powered submarines is in high demand.

Speculation was directed at France, but the French government denied any involvement.

I love throws with a small bag

Diana Toby’s old students at school don’t understand anything.

– It was understood that she was insanely smart. She was very friendly and her feet were on the ground. Craig Martin says you handled it well Even the New York Times.

Luke Koerschner, 20, described her to the magazine as “very friendly and welcoming” and an outgoing personality who loves to cheer her students during school tournaments. Cornhole is a game where you throw small bags of corn through a hole on a board.