Former NASA Langley employee pleads guilty in federal case

Update

In a statement Friday morning NASA commented on the two former employees federally charged with violating a NASA security policy.

“We recognize that controls governing foreign national access to NASA facilities, resources, and information are vital to protect the interests of NASA and the United States and employees must abide by those access requirements to ensure that controlled information is protected against unauthorized access by foreign national visitors.”

“NASA Administrator Charles Bolden has directed a number of actions to further secure sensitive, export-controlled information at NASA facilities in order to enhance overall security, consistent with recommendations made in recent reviews conducted by the General Accountability Office, the NASA Office of the Inspector General, and the National Academy of Public Administration, including the establishment of the NASA’s Foreign National Access Management program within the Office of Protective Services.”

Previously

A former NASA Langley Research Center employee pleaded guilty this week to violating a NASA regulation by allowing a foreign national unrestricted access to a company computer.

Glenn A. Woodell entered a guilty plea to a misdemeanor count of violating a regulation and order of NASA and was sentenced to six months probation and a $500 fine, according to a judgment order signed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert J. Krask. The charge stems from Woodell allowing Bo Jiang, who worked as a contractor at NASA Langley, access to a computer of a deceased NASA employee in 2011.

Woodell was employed as an engineering technician at NASA Langley from 1983 until his retirement in January. Woodell and research physicist Daniel J. Jobson, who is also charged in the case, were Jiang’s supervisors. Jobson is also no longer an employee at NASA, according to the company.

In January 2011, Woodell gave Jiang access to the computer in order to find data that Woodell and Jobson had been unable to retrieve, according to the statement of facts.

The computer had belonged to a NASA employee who died in December 2010. He had worked with Jobson and Woodell on an atmospheric environment safety project, which is why they needed the data from his computer.

“At no time did Woodell ever act to secure, protect or fully restrict Jiang’s access to the information contained on the … NASA computer and thereby failed to protect NASA information from unauthorized disclosure to a foreign national with complete and unrestricted access to a NASA computer,” according to the statement of facts.

Woodell’s attorney, Fernando Groene, said his client wanted to put the situation behind him and move on with his life.

“At the end of the day although he admits his responsibility, NASA has very lax regulations and no one ever told him what he could or couldn’t do,” Groene said. “He provided Jiang with access to information that should not have been provided and that resulted in this … at no time was any sensitive, classified, secure or national security information compromised because there was not any on there.”

Two requests for comment from NASA’s D.C. headquarters were not returned Thursday.

Jiang, a research scientist, pleaded guilty in 2013 to a misdemeanor charge of downloading pornography, movies and TV shows to his NASA laptop computer that he used in his job at the National Institute of Aerospace. He initially was accused of lying to federal agents about the computers and storage devices he was carrying when agents boarded the plane he was on at Dulles International Airport.

Jiang was headed to China on a one-way ticket when he was stopped.

“Jiang used a NASA laptop computer furnished to a contractor to download, view and store copyrighted movies and television shows, and materials depicting sexually explicit and sexually oriented materials,” violating NASA policy directives, according to a criminal charge filed in 2013.

As part of a plea agreement, a pending felony charge of lying to federal agents was dismissed and Jiang had to return to China within 48 hours of the 2013 hearing.

In 2012, NASA investigators learned that Jiang had taken a NASA laptop home to China in November 2012 — in violation of a NASA regulation that bars taking the computer to that country. Upon his return to the United States in December 2012, Jiang was asked to return the computer equipment to the National Institute of Aerospace, and he was barred from entering the NASA Langley grounds.

Jiang worked as a contractor for NASA Langley from 2011 until 2013 when he was terminated. Jiang’s case caused a national debate about the access and theft of data from government agencies, notably to countries such as China.

Groene also represented Jiang in his 2013 plea.

“Every federal government employee uses their computer for things that are not necessarily government related… Jiang was not a spy,” Groene said.

The statement of facts in Woodell’s case does not include details of Jiang’s offense, but the offense period listed does cover the entire timeframe Jiang worked under Jobson and Woodell from 2011 to 2013.

Speed can be reached at 247-4778.