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A Department of Energy employee from Washington state has been arrested and charged with attempting to provide material support to the Houthis, the Iran-backed group in Yemen that the United States designates as a foreign terrorist organization, the Justice Department announced on October 1.
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Shop NowAshton Hamed Ellaboudy, 51, of Richland, was taken into custody after an investigation by the FBI’s Inland Northwest Joint Terrorism Task Force. Fox News reports that he first drew the bureau’s attention by buying precursor chemicals and components often used in homemade explosives, along with drone parts.
Prosecutors allege that in 2024 Ellaboudy took sick leave from his Energy Department job, saying he had been exposed to highly concentrated nitric acid, which the report describes as a key compound in explosives manufacturing.
In 2025, they say, he used an official passport from a previous role with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to travel from Washington state to Oman, then crossed into Yemen.
The Justice Department’s announcement adds that he told border officers the trip was official government business, a claim it says his Energy Department supervisor contradicted.
For the Houthis, Ellaboudy allegedly tested solar generators, modified power systems, created circuit schematics and supported the group’s communications. According to the Justice Department, those exchanges were with an FBI confidential source posing as a Houthi representative.
“These allegations are so deeply disturbing that they almost defy imagination,” said John A. Eisenberg, the assistant attorney general for national security, who said Ellaboudy “acquired materials for the construction of explosive material and drones capable of delivering these explosives.”
Jarod Brown, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said Ellaboudy “allegedly betrayed the U.S.” and that “his actions were detected and he is now in custody.”
Energy Department officials also addressed the Hanford nuclear site. “This matter did not involve an attempt to harm the Hanford Site or its workforce, and at no time was there a threat to the safety or security of the site,” said Ray Geimer of the Energy Department’s Hanford Field Office.
The charge carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Ellaboudy was scheduled to make an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in Richland on October 2.
The Fox report does not include a plea or any comment from a defense lawyer, and it does not say how long he had worked for the department.
The charges are allegations. The Justice Department’s release notes that a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
