NEW YORK, April 30. /TASS/. Jareh Sebastian Dalke, a former employee of the US National Security Agency (NSA), has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for an attempt to pass over classified information to a purported Russian agent who was in fact an undercover FBI officer, the US Department of Justice said.

Dalke admitted that "he used an encrypted email account to transmit excerpts of three classified documents to an individual he believed to be a Russian agent."

"This defendant <...> believed he was selling classified national security information. <...> This sentence demonstrates that that those who seek to betray our country will be held accountable for their crimes," said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.

"This sentence should serve as a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information that there are consequences to betraying that trust," said FBI Director Christopher Wray.