Hawaii Woman Pleads Guilty To Mishandling Classified Material
Asia Janay Lavarello was an executive assistant at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
A 31-year-old Hawaii woman who worked as an executive assistant at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command pleaded guilty Tuesday to knowingly removing classified material related to national defense or foreign relations and keeping it in an unauthorized location.
Federal prosecutors said Asia Janay Lavarello admitted to removing and keeping “numerous classified documents, writing and notes” relating to foreign relations and national defense without authority.
Lavarello pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court. Her sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 4. She faces up to five years behind bars and a fine of $250,000.
While she was an executive assistant at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, she accepted a temporary assignment at the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines.
Prosecutors said she had access to classified documents there and took them to her hotel room, where she hosted a dinner party in March 2020 with two foreign nationals.
A co-worker discovered the documents, classified as “secret,” and she was fired.
She returned to the islands and in June, a search warrant was executed on her workplace at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. In her desk, investigators found a notebook with classified information.
Investigators said she did not follow proper procedures for handling the information. They also said she included classified information in an email on an unsecured network.
“Protecting the national security of the United States is our highest priority, and failing to adhere to the most basic security practices, as this defendant did, is contrary to this critical priority,” .
