A U.S. Navy engineer and his wife will remain in jail for espionage, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Jonathan Toebbe, a member of the US Navy’s Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program, is accused of attempting to sell specs of the Virginia-class nuclear submarine to a foreign government. In a stab operation, an FBI investigator arranged with Toebbe three separate “dead drop” transfers of data cards that allegedly contained documents and diagrams related to the Virginia program. Jonathan’s wife, Diana Toebbe, is charged with keeping watch during these secret meetings.
Jonathan Toebbe has not petitioned the court for release, but Diana, a teacher at a high-end private school in Annapolis, has requested to be released on bail pending her trial so that she can look after the couple’s children. Prosecutors asked the court to keep her in custody, alleging that a number of previous text messages she exchanged with her husband had shown interest in leaving. The judge agreed and denied Diana Toebbe’s motion.
The FBI may have taken the Toebbes into custody, but the agency has not yet completed their search. The undercover agents involved in the spike operation gave Jonathan Toebbe $ 100,000 in cryptocurrency in exchange for his nuclear secrets. That money was not found – another reason to keep the two Toebbes in custody, prosecutors argued.
In addition, investigators have failed to retrieve the thousands of pages of Virginia Program documents that Jonathan Toebbe is alleged to have in his possession.
The Virginia-class submarine is the most modern attack submarine in the US Navy, which enables extremely quiet operation, high speed and long missions. The nuclear reactor technology at their heart is one of the nation’s best kept secrets. Disclosure of so-called “limited data” about a military nuclear program is a serious crime and if convicted can face decades of imprisonment (or life). Neither of them pleaded guilty.
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