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Woman Pleads Guilty to Unauthorized Removal and Retention of Classified Material
justice.gov ^ | July 20, 2021 | Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs

Posted on 07/21/2021 6:19:21 AM PDT by ransomnote

WASHINGTON – A Hawaii woman pleaded guilty today to one count of knowingly removing classified information concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States and retaining it at an unauthorized location.

According to court documents, Asia Janay Lavarello, 31, of Honolulu, admitted to having removed and retained numerous classified documents, writings and notes relating to the national defense or foreign relations of the United States without authority. While working as an Executive Assistant for the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, Lavarello accepted a temporary assignment working at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines. There, she had access to classified computers and documents, and attended classified meetings as part of her official duties. Court documents list several specific instances in which Lavarello mishandled classified material of the United States.

According to her plea, on March 20, 2020, Lavarello removed classified documents from the U.S. Embassy in Manila. She took the classified documents to her hotel room where she hosted a dinner party later that evening. Among the guests were two foreign nationals. During the party, a co-worker discovered the documents, which included documents classified at the SECRET level. Lavarello’s temporary assignment in the Philippines was ultimately terminated due to her mishandling of SECRET classified documents.

After Lavarello returned to Hawaii, investigators executed a search warrant at her government workplace. In her desk, investigators found a notebook containing Lavarello’s handwritten notes of meetings she attended while working at the U.S. Embassy in Manila. The notes contained facts and information classified at the CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET levels. Investigators determined that Lavarello personally transported the documents to Hawaii, unsecured, and kept the classified notebook at an unsecure location until at least April 13, 2020.

Investigators also discovered that Lavarello included information from the classified notebook in a Jan. 16, 2020, email from her personal Gmail account to her unclassified U.S. Government email account. The information she transmitted over unsecure networks was classified at the SECRET level.

Lavarello pleaded guilty to the charge of unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material and faces up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) are investigating the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mohammed Khatib of the District of Hawaii and Trial Attorney Stephen Marzen of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section are prosecuting the case.

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1 posted on 07/21/2021 6:19:21 AM PDT by ransomnote
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To: ransomnote

But Hillary runs an unsecured server from her home and its not a problem.


2 posted on 07/21/2021 6:20:40 AM PDT by RBW in PA
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To: ransomnote

Inadvertent? Sloppy?

Just a reminder, Hillary did the same thing. The criminal Comey claimef that no prosecutor would press charges.


3 posted on 07/21/2021 6:22:12 AM PDT by Fido969 ( Scas the Senate )
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To: ransomnote

BTW, what about Traitorhillary and her bathroom computers containing classified information?!?


4 posted on 07/21/2021 6:22:15 AM PDT by Carl Vehse
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To: All

Hillary is snickering somewhere right now.


5 posted on 07/21/2021 6:24:06 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Send lawyers, guns and money. Dad, help me out of this.)
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To: RBW in PA
This is beyond incompetence. This is spying pure and simple.

What is the penalty for stealing state secrets?

6 posted on 07/21/2021 6:26:58 AM PDT by Dubh_Ghlase (Oh boy!)
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To: ransomnote

If only Lavarello had stored the documents in Sandy Berger’s shorts, she’d have been fine.


7 posted on 07/21/2021 6:29:09 AM PDT by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~you/base)
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To: ransomnote

Biden forwarded State info to Hunter from his personal email account. Media: Crickets!


8 posted on 07/21/2021 6:33:11 AM PDT by CFW
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To: Dubh_Ghlase

“What is the penalty for stealing state secrets?”

Having been with the DoD for 30 years and taking mandatory annual training in direct relation to this, the penalty “should be” prison if found guilty.
I can tell you in the training several people were identified as examples who were found guilty did in fact go to prison.
Having said that, in this day and age who knows.


9 posted on 07/21/2021 6:34:27 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: ransomnote

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2021/07/20/breaking-news/u-s-indo-pacific-command-executive-assistant-31-pleads-guilty-to-removing-classified-documents/


10 posted on 07/21/2021 6:36:55 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: ransomnote

https://www.instagram.com/jamricangrl/?hl=en


11 posted on 07/21/2021 6:37:47 AM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: ransomnote

Saw the headline and first thoughts were: “Hillary moved to Hawaii?” /sarc


12 posted on 07/21/2021 6:56:42 AM PDT by Perseverando (Antifa, BLM, RINOs, Islamonazis, Statists, Communists, DemoKKKrats: It's a Godlessness disorder!)
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To: V_TWIN

well, at least it was not TS. I wonder what it was they were so interested in or perhaps was this a first show and this is the type stuff I can get for you for $.


13 posted on 07/21/2021 7:00:34 AM PDT by Mouton (The enemy of the people is the media.)
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To: ransomnote
A Hawaii woman pleaded guilty today to one count of knowingly removing classified information concerning the national defense or foreign relations of the United States and retaining it at an unauthorized location.

One count? Hell, Mrs. Bill Clinton had thousands of Secret and Top Secret documents on her unauthorized location.

And Democrats don't see that the double-standard is the problem.

14 posted on 07/21/2021 7:13:28 AM PDT by libertylover (Our biggest problem by far: most of the news media is agenda driven, not truth driven.)
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To: ransomnote

Obama-related “information”?


15 posted on 07/21/2021 7:15:22 AM PDT by nesnah (Infringe - act so as to limit or undermine [something]; encroach onre)
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To: Mouton

“Assistant U.S. Attorney Mohammed Khatib”

Oh boy.....here we go


16 posted on 07/21/2021 7:21:23 AM PDT by V_TWIN
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To: BipolarBob

So is boy swallow who is on the intelligence committee.


17 posted on 07/21/2021 7:45:55 AM PDT by pas
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To: ransomnote

Boy bet she’s in trouble she beat Biden to it?.


18 posted on 07/21/2021 8:13:39 AM PDT by Vaduz (women and children to be impacIQ of chimpsted the most.)
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