Former CIA employee Joshua Schulte, who was tried in the largest “leakage” in the history of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was found guilty by the jury of 9 crimes against him in the case in New York.
Shulte, who worked as a computer programmer in the CIA and gave WikiLeaks an 8,761-page document, which revealed how the agency had infiltrated Apple and Android software as well as Smart-enabled televisions, went to court again.
Standing trial for allegedly committing the biggest leak of information in CIA history, Shulte was found guilty of 9 counts, including “illegal seizure of information on national defense” and “cloaking of criminal evidence”.
After the jury’s decision after 4 days of deliberation, the judge will punish Schulte.
80 YEARS PRISON
The former CIA employee is expected to serve more than 80 years in prison.
New York Southern District Court Attorney Damian Williams said: “Joshua Adam Schulte was a CIA programmer with access to some of the nation’s most valuable intelligence-gathering cyber tools used to fight terrorist organizations and other malicious foci around the world. When resentment against him began to grow, he secretly collected these tools and provided them to WikiLeaks. He made some of our most critical intelligence tools available to the public, and therefore to our enemies.” used the phrases.
Prosecutor Damian stated that Schulte was aware that what he had done “could pose an extraordinary threat” to the United States and “could have a devastating effect on the intelligence community by providing critical intelligence to those who wish to harm the United States.”
“Today, Schulte was convicted for one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history,” Damian wrote. made its assessment.
Shculte, on the other hand, in her defense in court, claimed that she was chosen as a “scapegoat” by the FBI and CIA and that she was set up.
“Hundreds of people had access to that information. Hundreds may have stolen that information.” He said there was reasonable doubt in the charges brought against him.
8,761 PAGE INFORMATION PACKAGE WAS SHARED
Allegedly, Shulte committed the crime of leaking information in 2016, and the 8,761-page information package about the CIA’s cyber activities was published on WikiLeaks in 2017 as “Vault-7”.
The information package included extensive software codes and usage methods for the CIA to hack into Apple and Android phones for cyber purposes, sending monitoring malware to Smart-enabled televisions.
Arrested in 2018, Schulte first appeared before a judge in 2020, and the trial, which lasted about a week, was postponed due to the jury’s failure to reach a unanimous decision. (AA)