Plea hearing set for Md. woman charged in submarine spy case

The wife of a Navy nuclear engineer charged with trying to sell submarine secrets to a foreign government appears poised to plead guilty

Navy Engineer Nuclear Secrets

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.

The Toebbes, of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in West Virginia in October 2021.