“Judgment Handed Down for Ex-CIA
Operative Convicted of Leaking Secrets to WikiLeaks”
A man involved in one of the most significant data breaches
in the history of the CIA, where secret hacking tools were publicly disclosed,
has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison. Joshua Adam Schulte, a former
CIA officer aged 35, faced convictions related to the Vault 7 leak and the
possession of child sexual abuse images in trials held in 2022 and 2023.
Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District
of New York in Manhattan, stated on Thursday that Schulte betrayed his country,
causing substantial damage to national security. Williams emphasized that
Schulte's actions stemmed from a desire for revenge against the CIA due to
their response to his security breaches during his employment there.
Despite prosecutors seeking a life sentence, the imposed 40-year sentence reflects the severity of Schulte's actions. Having left the CIA in 2016, Schulte was found guilty of egregious violations of the Espionage Act. The prosecutors highlighted in their sentencing memo that he stole a collection of highly sensitive cyber-tools used for intelligence gathering from the CIA. Subsequently, he handed this arsenal to WikiLeaks, which, in 2017, made the information public, reaching America's adversaries.