Ashton Hamed Ellaboudy had a Department of Energy paycheck, an electrical engineering background, and — according to federal prosecutors — a side project: helping the Houthis build explosive devices and weaponized drones. In 2024, he allegedly traveled to Oman and crossed into Houthi-occupied Yemen to offer his expertise in person.
He was still drawing a federal salary.
Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg didn't mince around the severity of the charges. "A U.S. government employee traveled overseas and used his specialized expertise in an attempt to aid the Houthis, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization backed by Iran," Eisenberg said. He added that "Ellaboudy acquired materials for the construction of explosive material and drones capable of delivering these explosives. These allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination."
The Justice Department says Ellaboudy purchased precursor chemicals for homemade explosive devices and provided guidance on solar power generators, communication equipment, schematics, and diagrams — the full technical toolkit for a terrorist organization that has been firing on U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea. The FBI says he communicated with a confidential human source during the course of the alleged activity.
The charge is attempting to provide material support or resources to a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. If convicted, Ellaboudy faces up to 20 years in federal prison. He has not entered a plea as of this writing.
The question nobody in Washington wants to answer is the obvious one: how does someone with access to a Department of Energy facility — an agency that oversees nuclear weapons infrastructure — end up allegedly running errands for an Iranian-backed terror group without anyone noticing until the FBI builds a case? The vetting process that let Ellaboudy through the door is the same vetting process that's supposed to keep our most sensitive technology out of hostile hands.
The Houthis have launched dozens of attacks on commercial shipping and U.S. Navy vessels in the Red Sea since late 2023. American sailors have been in harm's way for months. And according to federal prosecutors, a man collecting a government paycheck was allegedly on the other side of that fight, helping the people shooting at our ships build better weapons.
Defenders of the federal hiring apparatus will point out that background checks can't predict future behavior. That's true for the guy who steals office supplies. It's a harder sell when the allegation involves physically crossing into enemy territory with bomb-making materials.
Ellaboudy's case lands in the middle of a broader Trump administration effort to root out internal security threats across the federal workforce.
