Indian American expert fights renewed push for detention as judge weighs arguments

Washington, Dec 7 (IANS) Indian American Ashley J. Tellis, foreign policy expert on US and South Asian affairs, returned to federal court this week to contest the Justice Department's attempt to detain him pending trial, telling a judge that prosecutors have offered no legally valid basis to reopen his release conditions. 

In a new filing this week, Tellis's attorneys said the government's motion "should be dismissed outright," arguing that federal law requires prosecutors to identify information that is both "not known" at the time of the earlier hearing and "material" to the detention question.

"Nothing the government identifies is both -- as the law requires -- new and material to the issue of detention," the defence wrote.

At the centre of the dispute is whether Tellis -- who is charged with a single count under US sections for unlawful retention of national defence information -- should remain on strict home confinement or be moved into custody before trial. The charge stems from two documents described in the indictment; the defence notes that the case "does not allege or even suggest that Dr Tellis disseminated the national defence information."

Tellis has been under electronic monitoring since October 21, after prosecutors and defence attorneys jointly proposed release conditions that included home confinement, the surrender of his passport and a prohibition on internet access.

His legal team told the court he has "meticulously abided by the conditions ordered by the Court," and that the government's concerns raised in the latest motion were either known earlier or irrelevant.

In court papers, the defence argues that prosecutors are not allowed to raise dangerousness under the Bail Reform Act because the statute under which Tellis is charged does not fall within the limited list that permits such a claim.

"The government may argue only risk of flight, not dangerousness," the filing says, adding that Tellis's "strong ties to his family, home, and community" rebut the suggestion that he might flee.

The defence also disputes the government's characterisations of evidence seized during the October search of Tellis' home and office, arguing that prosecutors "reasonably could have known" the nature of the material before the original detention hearing.

They also cite Tellis' cooperation, noting that when he found additional hard drives and documents that agents had not seized, he "immediately and voluntarily provided" them to the FBI.

Tellis's attorneys say the government's speculation about future risk is unsupported and does not meet the legal threshold for pretrial detention. They warn that moving Tellis into custody would also hinder his ability to assist in reviewing sensitive documents in preparation for trial. "Utilising his expert view of documents, necessary to the defence, will be extremely difficult if incarcerated," they wrote.

The courtroom dispute unfolds as the case prepares for its next procedural steps. The judge will decide whether prosecutors have met their burden to reopen the detention hearing -- a standard that requires a showing of new, material information rather than arguments previously available to the government.

Tellis was arrested on October 11 after agents executed a search warrant at his Vienna, Virginia, home, recovering what investigators earlier described as more than a thousand pages of materials with classification markings. Two China-related documents later served as the basis for the single retention charge.

After an initial hearing, prosecutors agreed to strict conditions of release, and probation officers have since reported "zero violations." Tellis's long career in government and policy analysis, including senior assignments at the National Security Council and the State Department, and his cooperation with investigators, have been emphasised in earlier filings as reasons he does not pose a risk of flight.

--IANS

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