WV/PA/MD/VA - Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, charged, shared submarine secrets with a foreign country, 2020

[Elley Mae]

Referring to the proposed sentence for Jonathan Toebbe, Groh wondered aloud what might happen if “he gets out early for good [behavior], and the information he still possesses and has access to is still in step with current technology — and he uses that and provides it to another country that gains an advantage over this country.” She said same about Diana Toebbe.

At a court hearing shortly after the couple’s October arrest, an FBI agent testified that authorities had searched the Toebbe home and their computers but had found neither the $100,000 in cryptocurrency that the U.S. government paid the couple, nor thousands of additional pages of secret documents the FBI says Toebbe stole from his job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/navy-spying-plea-deal-rejected/

…

I want them to get the max.

They should have thought about what would happen to the kids.

Jmo

 

[Laughing]

Referring to the proposed sentence for Jonathan Toebbe, Groh wondered aloud what might happen if “he gets out early for good [behavior], and the information he still possesses and has access to is still in step with current technology — and he uses that and provides it to another country that gains an advantage over this country.” She said same about Diana Toebbe.

At a court hearing shortly after the couple’s October arrest, an FBI agent testified that authorities had searched the Toebbe home and their computers but had found neither the $100,000 in cryptocurrency that the U.S. government paid the couple, nor thousands of additional pages of secret documents the FBI says Toebbe stole from his job.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/navy-spying-plea-deal-rejected/

…

I want them to get the max.

They should have thought about what would happen to the kids.

Jmo

I want to WOW at what they stole

and LOVE keep 'em locked up until that technology/system/info is completely out-of-date & replaced by different systems, and that's not successive or Version 3.2!

and they need to 'splain abut the cryptocurrency, you betcha.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[Cryptic]

Maryland Navy engineer and wife plead guilty in submarine secrets sale case

A U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and his wife have entered new guilty pleas in a case in West Virginia involving the sale of secrets about nuclear submarines.

www.cbsnews.com

It looks like the duo are aback in Court with a new and accepted plea bargain:

- They plead guilty. The previously stated light sentencing ranges are off the table.

- Instead, they face up to life in prison (there does not appear to be minimum sentence, so the judge has alot of discretion). Prosecutors still recommend a sentence on the lower side of the sentence range for DT.

I am hoping for a decades long sentence for the husband. I would also say that DT needs a meaningful sentence of at least 12 years (equates to about ten years in prison).

DT was not only a very active participant, but is educated and thus knew full well the gravity of what her husband was doing. Instead of trying to dissuade him, she affirms the crime, and then makes a political justification for it.

In short, DT is not, say: A mail order bride from the rural Phillippines with little education, few options and a very limited understanding of what her husband was actually exchanging. Husband then orders her to drive him to the drop site.

 

[IDK]

At the very least, it looks like the government has been able to recover most of the $100,000 in cryptocurrency they had given JT, as well as some of the information he stole:

“That package was obtained by the FBI in December 2020 through its legal attaché office in the unspecified foreign country. That set off a monthslong undercover operation in which an agent posing as a representative of a foreign country made contact with Toebbe, ultimately paying $100,000 in cryptocurrency in exchange for the information Toebbe was offering.


Prosecutors said the government has recovered classified information that Jonathan Toebbe had saved on electronic devices along with a “substantial amount” of the cryptocurrency.”

Maryland couple plead guilty in submarine secrets sale case

www.mysuncoast.com

 

[realanastasia]

US Navy nuclear engineer and wife sentenced to around 19 and 22 years

Jonathan Toebbe, 44, was sentenced to 19 years in prison while wife Diana, 46, gets just over 21 years after they pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in August 2022.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Both are going to prison.

 

[evilwise]

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg - Wikipedia

www.wikipedia.org

 

[IDK]

US Navy nuclear engineer and wife sentenced to around 19 and 22 years

Jonathan Toebbe, 44, was sentenced to 19 years in prison while wife Diana, 46, gets just over 21 years after they pleaded guilty to the conspiracy in August 2022.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Both are going to prison.

Wow, thanks so much for posting this. I need to go back and fully read the article— I am surprised she is getting more time than her husband? Am I misunderstanding?

 

[IDK]

More here:

Couple with Pittsburgh ties get long sentences for plot to sell nuclear defense secrets

BALTIMORE — A former Navy engineer and his wife were sentenced in federal court Wednesday to long sentences for plotting to sell U.S. nuclear submarine...

www.post-gazette.com

“I am in anguish over what I have done and I will never be able to make it right,” Jonathan Toebbe told the judge at Wednesday’s sentencing. He told the judge he had a mental breakdown over the course of several months where he was struggling to support his wife and children who suffer from issues that he did not detail, citing their privacy. He also cited increasing stress at work and the effects of the pandemic and remote work.

The judge said she was not persuaded by his motivations, but that she found him to be remorseful for his actions, unlike his wife.”

“Much of the discussion earlier in the proceeding was about Diana Toebbe’s attempt to send her husband two notes in jail, urging him to plead guilty and spare her, which Judge Groh said was evidence that the defendant was obstructing the investigation.

Judge Groh read from a letter written by Diana Toebbe that she attempted to send her husband in December 2021 through the prison laundry service.

“You’ve put me in great danger … I could go to jail for life for something I didn’t do ... Tell them the truth, I didn’t know anything about any of this,” the letter said. Diana Toebbe tried to send him a second note through the mail that was intercepted by jail staff.

Judge Groh said the jail letters from Diana Toebbe to her husband showed that she denied her cooperation and part in the conspiracy. Therefore, the judge said she could not reduce her sentence based on federal sentencing guidelines.”

 

[Elley Mae]

44-year-old Jonathan Toebbe, of Annapolis, was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months of incarceration and fined $45,700, authorities said. His wife, 46-year-old Diana Toebbe, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months of incarceration and fined $50,000.

Maryland nuclear engineer, wife sentenced for espionage-related charges

A Maryland man and his wife were sentenced Wednesday for conspiracy to communicate Restricted Data related to the design of nuclear-powered warships.

www.wdtv.com

…

I’m glad their going to jail for a bit.

Jmo

 

[helpfulcharlie]

Well if they never cashed out their crypto, the last year has likely made it near worthless, lol. Karma.

 

[Cryptic]

44-year-old Jonathan Toebbe, of Annapolis, was sentenced to 19 years and 4 months of incarceration and fined $45,700, authorities said. His wife, 46-year-old Diana Toebbe, was sentenced to 21 years and 10 months of incarceration and fined $50,000.

Wow, even given Uncle Sam's 15% near automatic, "You're still a human" sentence reduction of 15%, they are looking at essentially 16 years and 18 years behind bars.

 

[cocomod]

I am glad they are going away for time; I was afraid they would only get a slap. This was treason pure and simple. I personally am glad she has more time since she has no remorse.

 

[Laughing]

Glad to see the sentences -- but imho their children were sentenced as well.

Too bad that didn't occur to Jonathan & Diana.

jmho ymmv lrr

 

[IDK]

Looks like Diana Toebbe’s request for an appeal to waive the terms of her plea agreement was denied:

“Decided: October 25, 2023”​

“Although Toebbe acknowledges that in her plea agreement, she voluntarily and intelligently waived all rights to appeal “whatever sentence [was] imposed ․ for any reason,” she now seeks relief from that waiver, arguing that the district court committed errors during sentencing that she “could not have reasonably contemplated” when she executed the plea agreement. She claims in particular that, during sentencing, the district court “violated the principle of party presentation” in failing to accommodate the parties’ agreements; that the court-imposed sentence was “roughly 13 years above the binding [G]uidelines as outlined in the plea agreement”; that the district court enhanced her sentence for obstruction of justice, which was not contemplated in the plea agreement and thus was an “unfounded enhancement”; and that “the district judge ․ abandon[ed] her role as [a] neutral arbiter, refusing to credit even the most basic factual premises universally accepted by all parties, and developing and relying on a theoretical ‘plan C,’ a notion that the prosecutor vehemently tried to dispel.”

“After carefully reviewing the entire record and considering all the arguments, we conclude that Toebbe has failed to make a sufficient showing to avoid the clear terms of her plea agreement, which she acknowledges she entered into knowingly and intelligently. We also conclude that the government did not breach the plea agreement. Accordingly, we grant the government's motion to dismiss.”

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caselaw.findlaw.com

 

[IDK]

This article (behind a paywall for me) explains it in “plain English”

• “Lower court wasn’t bound by prosecutor’s recommendations
• Government had advocated for a three-year prison sentence

An Annapolis woman serving more than 21 years in prison for espionage gave up her right to challenge her sentence when she pleaded guilty to the crime, the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday.
It doesn’t matter that the sentence imposed was far higher than that contemplated by the plea agreement. A defendant’s expectation of a lower sentence, even if reasonable, isn’t grounds for relief from an appeal waiver, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer said.”

Woman Stuck With Espionage Plea, Despite Surprise 21-Year Term

An Annapolis woman serving more than 21 years in prison for espionage gave up her right to challenge her sentence when she pleaded guilty to the crime, the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday.

news.bloomberglaw.com

 

[Cryptic]

• Government had advocated for a three-year prison sentence

The prosecutor who tried to advance this plea bargain should have been terminated.

I just can help but think of the mother of one of the at risky youth types that my family has supported.

She has one thing in common with DT: Significant other was the main impetus in her crime. There are also differences: She is low income, largely uneducated, unsophisticated and.... black.

DT willingly and with full knowledge, endangers the lives of US servicemen for cash as an accomplice to her husband. The mother I know served as an accomplice in her boy friend's drug sales.

She served 8 years of a ten year sentence in an unforgiving state. Yet.... DT was offered a three year prison sentence that with "good time" and the attractive federal half way house program would have meant closer to 2 years of actual incarceration?