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A New Case For DL Sleuths: Bumbling Spies Jonathan and Diana Toebbe

Just got busted for attempting to sell nuclear submarine secrets to a unnamed foreign country.

Pretty amateur operation.

She was a school teacher, he was a Navy engineer.

They have small children, who, if they are convicted as seems likely and receive life sentences, they will never see again.

What was going on?

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by Anonymousreply 18September 28, 2022 4:56 AM

And yes, Oh Dear Troll, it should be "an unnamed..."

by Anonymousreply 1October 12, 2021 6:24 PM

Be interesting when we finally find out which country they were attempting to sell to. They were amateur and sloppy with their tradecraft.

by Anonymousreply 2October 12, 2021 6:53 PM
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by Anonymousreply 3October 12, 2021 6:57 PM

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

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by Anonymousreply 4October 12, 2021 7:11 PM

It will be interesting to see who they were spying for-- friend or foe?

by Anonymousreply 5October 12, 2021 11:27 PM

Friend who notified the US leading to their capture. Somebody who could use American nuke sub tech.

Israel was my first guess before I learned she was a progressive. Jews aren't popular with them. France is next most likely.

by Anonymousreply 6October 12, 2021 11:34 PM

The fact that Israel doesn't have much of a navy might also be a clue.

by Anonymousreply 7October 12, 2021 11:37 PM

Israel has bought from Germany a very nice nuclear-weapons capable sub fleet. Somebody might very well think they'd like to learn more for their own use.

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by Anonymousreply 8October 12, 2021 11:42 PM

If it was an amateurish operation it can't be the Russians. Unless they want them caught for some reason. Putin is a KGB man and thinks like one.

by Anonymousreply 9October 13, 2021 1:05 AM

[quote] It will be interesting to see who they were spying for-- friend or foe?

A brief article in yesterday's NYT hints at the country as being a "friendly" one.

[quote] Evidence in the court documents suggests the foreign country the Toebbes allegedly tried to sell the information to was an ally, or at least something of a partner, since it cooperated with the F.B.I. as the sting operation unfolded. While some experts speculated France could have been the target, French officials said they were not involved in the incident.

by Anonymousreply 10October 13, 2021 3:53 AM

Mais oui! They would say that, non?

by Anonymousreply 11October 13, 2021 6:18 AM

They had to be a friendly country, since they alerted the FBI, and then allowed the FBI to send a signal from their Embassy in DC. France claims it isn't them...inteersting.

by Anonymousreply 12October 13, 2021 7:20 PM

Jonathan Toebbe, 43, pleaded guilty in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, to a single count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between roughly 12 years and 17 years in prison.

Jonathan Toebbe had previously maintained that his wife did not know what he was doing. But prosecutors have called those statements “conveniently timed and clearly biased,” and he said in court Monday, as part of his plea, that he “conspired with Diana Toebbe.”

A lawyer for Diana Toebbe declined to comment.

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by Anonymousreply 13February 15, 2022 11:03 AM

They weren’t selling beauty secrets, that’s for sure.

by Anonymousreply 14February 15, 2022 11:43 AM

If you read the encrypted messages, you can see that the guy was illiterate ("adversaries" instead of "adversary's" error).

They both sound dumb and greedy.

These spy games are unreal. But good to know we are still paranoid enough to be spying on our own people. With enemies like Putin around, we need that as a country.

by Anonymousreply 15February 15, 2022 11:54 AM

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A U.S. Navy nuclear engineer and his wife entered new guilty pleas Tuesday in a case involving an alleged plot to sell secrets about nuclear-powered warships, a month after their previous plea agreements that had called for specific sentencing guidelines were rejected.

U.S. District Judge Gina Groh last month rejected the couple's initial pleas to the same charges, saying the sentencing options were "strikingly deficient" considering the seriousness of the case.

Under the latest plea agreement entered Tuesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Trumble, the couple would each face a maximum sentence of life in prison

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They sold out America because they hated Trump

A Maryland woman jailed on espionage-related charges is claiming that she tried to flee the U.S. not over fears of an impending arrest, but rather because she hated then-President Donald Trump, her lawyers said. Diana Toebbe and her former Navy nuclear engineer husband, Jonathan Toebbe, are charged with trying to sell American secrets to an unnamed foreign country. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In a new plea to be detained without bail while awaiting her trial, Toebbe’s lawyers introduced a fuller picture of a 2019 text conversation between the Toebbe. To her husband, Toebbe wrote in two texts, “WE NEED TO GET OUT,” and “Hilary [sic] was going to curb stomp trump. I’m done.” She made references to the “entire system” being rigged, and asked Jonathan to flee “sooner than later.” Toebbe said she couldn’t believe “that the two of us wouldn’t be welcomed and rewarded by a foreign govt.”

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by Anonymousreply 16September 28, 2022 4:25 AM

Eeewww! they look like siblings.

by Anonymousreply 17September 28, 2022 4:43 AM

What's wrong with selling nuclear submarine secrets to a foreign country? Or taking files full of nuclear submarine secrets to Mar-A-Lago, for that matter?

by Anonymousreply 18September 28, 2022 4:56 AM
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