A court in the United States has ordered the release of Ashley Tellis, an Indian-American national security expert and long-time adviser to Washington, prior to his trial in an espionage case, The Times of India reported on Thursday.

His attorneys, promising full cooperation in the matter, cited Tellis’ “lifelong commitment to American national security”.

Tellis, who serves as a consultant with the US State Department, was arrested on October 11 and charged with illegally removing classified files from a government facility.

He was taken into custody after investigators found more than a thousand documents with classified markings in his home in Virginia. Classified material was also found in three trash bags during a search conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation that weekend.

A Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit also stated that Tellis met Chinese government officials multiple times in the past several years. It was not immediately clear from the affidavit what information, if any, Tellis allegedly may have shared with Chinese officials.

In a preliminary appearance before Judge Lindsey Robinson Vaala of the Eastern District of Virginia, Tellis’ defence team described the case against him as “an overreach against a patriot”, India Today reported.

The team claimed that Tellis had been caught in the crosshairs of Washington’s tightening counterintelligence climate, adding that his actions stemmed from “scholarly curiosity, not espionage”.

The documents recovered by the Federal Bureau of Investigation were routine work products from his decades of government service, which had been inadvertently retained during a demanding schedule rather than deliberately hidden, his attorneys added.

“There was no malice, no covert intent – only a lifetime devoted to understanding and strengthening US national security,” India Today quoted his team as telling the court.

The defence also claimed that Tellis’ interactions with Chinese officials were transparent academic exchanges and not secretive missions.

“All meetings were fully disclosed during his regular security clearance renewals,” his attorneys said.

They dismissed the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s claims of espionage as “misguided suspicion in an era of US-China paranoia”.

The judge approved Tellis’ release ahead of the trial under strict supervision, The Indian Express reported. Tellis was ordered to be kept under home detention where he will be locally monitored.

The national security expert was also directed to surrender his passport and undergo electronic monitoring.

His internet access was also ordered to be restricted.

While issuing the order, the judge took into account Tellis’ community roots, including his 40-year US residency, his marriage to a US citizen, his adult children living nearby and substantial local assets, as evidence that he posed no flight risk, The Times of India reported.

His wife also co-signed a $1.5 million secured bond backed by the family home to secure his release.

The court set a preliminary hearing for November 4.

Allegations against Tellis

Tellis, a naturalised US citizen who was born in India, is a senior fellow at US-based think tank Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

According to court records, some of the documents allegedly accessed and removed by Tellis pertain to Air Force tactics and techniques, CNN reported.

Court filings said that in recent weeks, surveillance footage captured Tellis accessing and printing classified material, and removing it from government facilities, the South China Morning Post reported.

He was also allegedly seen hiding papers inside notepads and putting them in his briefcase before leaving the Pentagon’s Mark Center in Virginia.

Investigators alleged that on September 25, Tellis opened a classified 1,288-page US Air Force manual marked as “secret”, according to the South China Morning Post. He allegedly renamed the file “Econ Reform” so as to disguise it, printed hundreds of pages and then deleted the document.

Tellis was among the key negotiators of the India-US civil nuclear deal that was signed in 2008. He had served on the US National Security Council during George W Bush’s presidency.