‘SPIES’ HATED TRUMP
Also had $$ woes
The Maryland couple accused of trying to sell secrets about US nuclear submarines — using a peanut butter sandwich to hide an SD memory card — were worried about their finances and were furious when Donald Trump was elected president in 2016 , friends and co-workers said.
Navy nuclear engi- neer Jonathan Toebbe (top inset), 42, and his teacher wife, Diana (bottom inset), 45, were indicted in West Virginia on Tuesday on espionage charges.
The couple pleaded not guilty at separate hearings in Martinsburg, W.Va., on Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors have not revealed what may have motivated the Toebbes, but two dozen friends and colleagues told the New York Times that over the past decade, the couple had stewed over money, the stress of raising two children, a feeling of being undervalued and the direction of US politics.
Diana, who teaches at the private Key School in Annapolis, Md., sometimes complained about her $60,000 annual salary and once told a student, “I’m not doing this for the money.” She also seemed “genuinely distraught” when Trump was elected and spoke of leaving the US, another student told the Times.
Jonathan started repeatedly telling friends as far back as 2010 after the couple lost their home in the recession that he needed to “provide for his family.”
He abandoned his Ph.D. studies to join the Navy in 2012 — a move one of his friends said was made to make more money quickly.
The Toebbes, who were arrested by the FBI earlier this month following a yearlong sting operation, are each charged with one count of conspiracy to communicate restricted data and two counts of communication of restricted data.
Jonathan is accused of trying to pass information about the design of submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent.
His wife allegedly accompanied him to several “deaddrop” locations at which he left behind memory cards containing sensitive information.
The feds allege that Jonathan sent a package of restricted Navy documents and other materials to a foreign country in April 2020 with instructions on how to obtain additional information.
Over the next several months, Toebbe and his wife allegedly peddled additional military secrets to the undercover agent in exchange for $100,000 in cryptocurrency.
Jonathan once stashed the data about submarine nuclear reactors on an SD memory card that he stuffed into a peanut butter sandwich, according to a criminal complaint.
He also allegedly used a Band-Aid wrapper and pack of chewing gum to help hide SD cards at other times.