On Thursday, February 1, former CIA cyber intelligence officer Joshua Adam Schulte was sentenced to 40 years in prison by a US District Court. The reason was the storage of pornography involving children, as well as sending secret information to the organization WikiLeaks.
The US Attorney’s Office called the disclosure of classified information one of the largest in the history of the country. Prosecutor Damian Williams said Joshua Schulte caused irreparable harm to his country and endangered national security.
Court documents contain information that between 2012 and 2016 Joshua worked for the CIA. Taking advantage of his official position, in 2016 he managed to steal important information. The files obtained by WikiLeaks in 2017 were posted on its website. In total, several thousand documents were made public about the CIA’s work in the field of cyber espionage and surveillance, RTVI writes with reference to the website of the US Department of Justice.
During the trial, Schulte did not agree with the prosecution’s arguments. In March 2020, a conviction was handed down on two counts of transferring software and eight counts of stealing classified information.
During a search of Schulte, police found tens of thousands of videos of child abuse. These files were stored on the defendant’s personal media. A guilty verdict in this case will be handed down in the fall of 2023.
Source: Rosbalt
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