A us-regions woman employed by the Department of Defense pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to removing classified material, which were discovered in her hotel room during a dinner party in which two foreign nationals were present, while temporarily assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Manila, Philippines.
Asia Lavarello, 31, pleaded guilty to one count of knowingly removing classified information concerning U.S. national defense or foreign relations and retaining it at an unauthorized location, the Justice Department said.
“Government employees are entrusted with a responsibility to ensure classified information is properly handled and secured. Asia Janay Lavarello failed in her duty when she removed classified documents from the U.S. Embassy Manila,” Steven Merrill, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Honolulu office, said in a statement.
Lavarello was employed as an executive assistant at the military” target=”_blank”>Indo-Pacific Command<
Investigators said Lavarello personally took documents to Hawaii, unsecured, and kept the notebook at an unsecured location until at least April 13. They also said she included information from the notebook in a January 16. email from her personal Gmail account to the unclassified work account.
She faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and $250,000 in fines. She is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 4.
