I TELL NO LIE

Accused Spy Tried to Flee U.S. Because She Really Hated Trump, Lawyers Insist

Diana Toebbe allegedly tried to sell U.S. secrets to a foreign country along with her husband, former Navy nuclear engineer Jonathan Toebbe.

A Maryland woman jailed on espionage-related charges is claiming that she tried to flee the U.S. not over fears of an impending arrest, but rather because she hated then-President Donald Trump, her lawyers said. Diana Toebbe and her former Navy nuclear engineer husband, Jonathan Toebbe, are charged with trying to sell American secrets to an unnamed foreign country. Both have pleaded not guilty.

In a new plea to be detained without bail while awaiting her trial, Toebbe’s lawyers introduced a fuller picture of a 2019 text conversation between the Toebbe. To her husband, Toebbe wrote in two texts, “WE NEED TO GET OUT,” and “Hilary [sic] was going to curb stomp trump. I’m done.” She made references to the “entire system” being rigged, and asked Jonathan to flee “sooner than later.” Toebbe said she couldn’t believe “that the two of us wouldn’t be welcomed and rewarded by a foreign govt.”

Prosecutors have said Jonathan Toebbe mailed a package of classified material to a foreign country in April 2020, seeking $5 million in cryptocurrency. Court documents seem to imply that the U.S. government caught wind of the alleged espionage attempt when the unnamed country informed them. Diana Toebbe accused of playing lookout as her husband deposited classified material for an FBI employee he believed to be a foreign agent.