A former CIA employee has been sentenced to 40 years behind bars after executing the largest data leak in the agency’s history. The employee worked for the CIA from 2012 to 2016 as a software engineer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence, according to a report released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.
Joshua Schulte, 35, was previously accused of releasing classified data to Wikileaks in 2016 and was subsequently convicted in 2022 of illegally gathering and transmitting national defense information and obstructing a criminal investigation and grand jury proceeding.
USA Today reported that Schulte was convicted of espionage, child pornography, computer hacking, contempt of court, and making false statements to the FBI in separate trials. Schulte’s sentencing took place in New York federal court after three trials that concluded on March 9, 2020, July 13, 2022, and September 12, 2023, according to federal records.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said, “Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history.”
“He caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there,” Williams continued.
via joemiller
