US Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, Lindsey Halligan, announced the arrest of 64-year-old Ashley Tellis from Vienna, saying he had been charged with unlawfully keeping national defence information in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 793(e).

According to AFP, the US State Department confirmed that Tellis was taken into custody on October 11, the same day an affidavit stated he was supposed to fly to Rome.

“We are fully focused on protecting the American people from all threats, foreign and domestic. The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” Halligan said.

“The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served,” he added.

If found guilty, Tellis could face up to 10 years in prison, a fine of up to $ 250,000, a $100 special assessment, and forfeiture, the US Attorney’s Office said in a statement.

It added that sentences in federal cases are usually lower than the maximum allowed, and the final decision will be made by a district judge after reviewing the US Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

Tellis, who has worked with or advised the US government for more than 20 years, was found to have stored over 1,000 pages of classified or top-secret documents at his home, according to a criminal affidavit cited by AFP.

The affidavit said that on September 25, Tellis entered the State Department, where he was serving as an unpaid advisor, and appeared to print material from a secret document about US Air Force techniques.

It also stated that Tellis had met Chinese government officials several times at a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia, near Washington.

During one of those meetings, Tellis was seen arriving with a manila envelope but did not appear to leave with it, while on two other occasions, the Chinese officials were seen handing him a gift bag, the affidavit said.

Tellis, an American citizen originally from India, is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His work focuses on international security and US foreign and defence policy, especially concerning Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

He has also served in the US Foreign Service and worked as a senior adviser to the ambassador at the US Embassy in New Delhi.

In the past, Tellis held senior roles in President George W Bush’s administration, where he played a key part in shaping the landmark civil nuclear deal with India, which helped strengthen relations between the two countries.

In recent years, however, Tellis became known in Washington as a sharp critic of how the US was handling its relationship with India.

In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, Tellis wrote that India was often pursuing policies that did not align with those of the United States, pointing to its ties with Russia and Iran, and expressed doubt that India would be able to match China’s power anytime soon.