Navy nuclear engineer charged with trying to pass secrets

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department says a Navy nuclear engineer with access to military secrets has been charged with trying to pass information about the design of American nuclear-powered submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent. In a criminal complaint detailing the espionage-related charges against Jonathan Toebbe, the government says he sold information for nearly the past year to a contact he believed represented a foreign power. That country was not named in the court documents. Toebbe was arrested in West Virginia on Saturday along with his wife. It’s not immediately clear whether either Toebbe has a lawyer.