A former federal employee with local ties was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday for mishandling sensitive documents.
Margaret Anne Ashby, 26, now of Henderson, Nev., pleaded guilty in October to the unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents while employed with a U.S. Department of Defense component agency. Some of the activities took place in Richmond County, according to her indictment.
“This sentence should serve as a reminder to all personnel who handle sensitive government documents that their proper handling is of paramount importance,” said Tara M. Lyons, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Georgia. “Margaret Ashby is being held accountable for violating the laws that govern those entrusted to work with these materials.”
Chief U.S. District Judge J. Randal Hall sentenced Ashby to 36 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $15,000, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s office. There is no parole in the federal system.
Ashby was hired in March 2020 as a civilian employee of the component agency, located in the Southern District, the statement said. As a condition of her employment, Ashby possessed a top secret security clearance.
From February to May of 2022, Ashby knowingly removed without authority documents and materials “concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States,” it said.
Ashby removed the documents and materials “with the intent to retain them at unauthorized locations,” including her home in the Southern District and in digital files saved on a personal computing device, the statement said.
“Certain responsibilities are mandatory to individuals with access to top secret information and when the trust placed on them to protect our national intelligence is violated, they put our country at risk,” said Paul Brown, special agent in charge of FBI Atlanta. “We will continue work with our partners to protect the American people and uphold the constitution by safeguarding our country’s classified information.”
The case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted for the United States by Southern District Assistant U.S. Attorneys L. Alexander Hamner and Darron J. Hubbard, as well as Trial Attorney David J. Ryan with the U.S. Department of Justice Counterintelligence and Export Control Section.
