In this photo provided by U.S. Navy, the Virginia-class fast-attack submarine USS Missouri (SSN 780) departs Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam for a scheduled deployment in the 7th Fleet area of responsibility, Sept. 1, 2021. Australia decided to invest in U.S. nuclear-powered submarines and dump its contract with France to build diesel-electric submarines because of a changed strategic environment, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021.(Chief Mass Communication Specialist Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP)
The wife of a Navy nuclear engineer charged with trying to sell submarine secrets to a foreign government appears poised to plead guilty.
A plea hearing for Diana Toebbe is scheduled for Friday morning in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia, according to a court notice. Lawyers for Toebbe did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment on Thursday.
Toebbe's husband, Jonathan, pleaded guilty Monday to a charge of conspiring to communicate restricted data. The sentencing range agreed to by lawyers calls for a potential punishment between roughly 12 years and 17 years in prison.
Jonathan Toebbe admitted selling information about Virginia-class submarines to someone he thought was a representative of a foreign government but who was actually an undercover FBI agent. Diana Toebbe was charged with acting as a lookout at several prearranged “dead-drop” locations at which memory cards containing the secret information was left behind.
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The Toebbes, of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in West Virginia in October 2021.
