She was taken aback by Trump’s 2016 election, he said, and mentioned several times that she was considering moving to Australia.
“She said she couldn’t stand the current state of politics and actually had found some job opportunities over there,” he said.
On social media platforms, Ms. Toebbe shared photos of her dogs, her children, meals cooking on the stove, a family vacation, and selfies — ordinary scenes of an ordinary life, one far different than the amateur cloak-and-dagger act portrayed in the F.B.I. affidavit.
Having made contact with the as-yet undisclosed other country about providing submarine secrets, the Toebbes were reluctant to expose themselves in an in-person meeting, according to the narrative laid out in court documents by the F.B.I. But their apparent desire for cryptocurrency payments led them to agree to the undercover operative’s demand they deposit information in a dead drop location — a decision that ultimately exposed their identity to the F.B.I.
Evidence in the court documents suggests the foreign country the Toebbes allegedly tried to sell the information to was an ally, or at least something of a partner, since it cooperated with the F.B.I. as the sting operation unfolded. While some experts speculated France could have been the target, French officials said they were not involved in the incident.
The hearing on Tuesday will be short. So far as the government knows, neither Jonathan nor Diana Toebbe has a lawyer. Prosecutors asked the court on Monday to hold Mr. Toebbe rather than granting him bail, saying he could face life in prison and was a flight threat. The magistrate judge could also set a hearing date for the couple’s continued detention.
Public records searches turned up no signs of financial distress that could provide a motivation for them to try to sell American secrets.