CIA computer engineer who leaked secrets is sentenced to 40 years

Information stolen from the Central Intelligence Agency appeared on a website called WikiLeaks in 2017.

In eight months, the site published more than two dozen groups of classified documents, called Vault 7, detailing the secret methods the United States used to break into computer networks used by foreign governments and terrorists. The revelations caused what the government called “catastrophic” damage to national security and prompted an intense hunt for the person responsible.

On Thursday, that person, Joshua Schulte, 35, was sentenced in Federal District Court in Manhattan to 40 years in prison. Mr. Schulte, a computer engineer, had worked for the spy agency for six years, had top security clearances and designed hacking tools.

He was convicted in 2022 for, among other things, illegally collecting and transmitting national defense information. That followed convictions in 2020 for contempt of court and making false statements. He was also convicted of receiving and transporting child pornography.

Judge Jesse M. Furman said Mr. Schulte's actions amounted to a “digital Pearl Harbor” that caused “untold damage to national security.”

“I am, to say the least, impressed by Mr. Schulte's lack of remorse,” the judge added.

Addressing the court for 30 minutes just before Judge Furman handed down his sentence, Mr. Schulte did not apologize but asked for a prison sentence.

He complained extensively that while awaiting trial he had been held in appalling conditions for years, without heating and hot water and exposed to constant noise and artificial light. And he accused prosecutors, who had sought a life sentence, of “nothing less than good old-fashioned mob-style bullying.”

Mr. Schulte's lawyers had asked for leniency, noting that their client, who they wrote “maintains his innocence,” most likely had “an undiagnosed neurodivergence.”

“Mr. Schulte's convictions constituted deviant behavior in an otherwise law-abiding life,” they wrote.

Federal prosecutors had called his crimes “virtually unprecedented in scope and damage” to the national security of the United States and said he was spurred on by personal animosity.

“Schulte did not act out of any misplaced altruism in the false belief that he was a whistleblower,” she added. “He acted out of pure spite and ego, and he chose to take out his perceived displeasure on the country he was sworn to defend.”

The Vault 7 saga and resulting investigation offered a glimpse into the inner workings of one of the world's most powerful intelligence agencies, revealing the raucous atmosphere and personal grudges of programmers and the failures and security flaws that a rogue operative exploited.

Mr. Schulte and other elite programmers worked in a secret building protected by armed guards. Among other things, they designed programs that targeted the computers of suspected terrorists. While they were doing that hard work, they also indulged in decidedly juvenile behavior, as evidenced by testimony from Mr. Schulte's first spy trial: sending prank emails, taunting coworkers about their physical appearance and shooting each other with Nerf guns and rubber bands.

Prosecutors said Mr. Schulte argued with coworkers and became angry when he was transferred from one facility to another and had his status as a project manager revoked. As his grievances mounted, prosecutors said, Mr. Schulte used a backdoor into the CIA's computer network to gain access to sensitive projects that matched the information WikiLeaks published nearly a year later. Prosecutors said he later tried to erase his digital fingerprints and gave the files to WikiLeaks.

A 2020 internal CIA report said the agency bore some blame for failing to prevent Mr. Schulte's actions, adding that it had failed to install safeguards and that its officials had ignored the lessons of other agencies where employees had stolen secrets. had ignored.

Mr. Schulte became the prime suspect within days of the WikiLeaks revelation. When the FBI searched his New York City apartment, agents found encrypted containers containing tens of thousands of videos and images of sexually abused children, including approximately 3,400 images and videos.

He was arrested in 2017 on child pornography charges while working as a senior software engineer for Bloomberg LP. Mr. Schulte was released on condition he stay home, but was jailed after a few months when he violated a federal judge's order not to use the Internet. without court permission.

Prosecutors said that while Mr. Schulte was in prison, he used a smuggled cellphone to create a Twitter account under the name Jason Bourne — a fictional character who worked as a CIA agent — and then used social media to accusing the government of placing child pornography on his phone. computer.

“Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, heinous espionage crimes in American history,” Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a press release, adding: “He will forty years behind bars – exactly where he belongs.”