A former CIA officer, Joshua Schulte, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for leaking a trove of classified hacking tools to whistle-blowing platform Wikileaks. Schulte was also found guilty of possessing child abuse images. The leak, known as the CIA’s “Vault 7” tools, allowed intelligence officers to hack smartphones and use them as listening devices.
The US justice department stated that Schulte shared 8,761 documents with Wikileaks in 2017, making it the largest data breach in the history of the CIA. Despite denying the allegations, Schulte was convicted on various counts at three separate federal trials in New York in 2020, 2022, and 2023. On Thursday, he was sentenced for charges of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and possession of child abuse images.
US Attorney Damian Williams described Schulte’s actions as a betrayal of his country, stating that he committed some of the most brazen and heinous crimes of espionage in American history. Evidence presented at the trial revealed that Schulte worked as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence, where cyber espionage against terrorist organizations and foreign governments was conducted.
Prosecutors argued that in 2016, Schulte transmitted the stolen information to Wikileaks and then lied to FBI agents about his involvement in the leak. They suggested that his motivation may have stemmed from anger over a workplace dispute. Schulte had been struggling to meet deadlines, and one of his projects had earned him the nickname “Drifting Deadline.”
The sentencing of Joshua Schulte serves as a reminder of the severe consequences for those who leak classified information and engage in criminal activities. It also highlights the ongoing efforts to protect national security and prevent unauthorized disclosures of sensitive information.
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