Schulte Joshua (Joshua Schulte)

Schulte Joshua (Joshua Schulte)

Biography

2024:40 years in prison for data transfer for WikiLeaks

A court in New York sentenced former CIA programmer Joshua Schulte to 40 years in prison in the case of the largest leak of a series of top-secret materials. The press service of the US Department of Justice announced this on February 1, 2024.

The ex-CIA officer was found guilty of espionage, hacking, contempt of court, false testimony, as well as possession of child pornography. According to the US Department of Justice, he committed one of the largest data thefts in the history of the CIA.

Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, disgusting espionage crimes in American history, US Attorney Damian Williams said. - He caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge on the CIA for his response to Schulte's security violations while working there.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen said Schulte endangered the lives of other department employees. Authorities believe the leak "undermined the CIA's ability to gather intelligence on U.S. adversaries."

Prosecutors asked to give Schulte a life sentence, and the defense - 9 years in prison, reports NBC. According to his lawyers, the ex-CIA officer is a "smart, kind young man" and "was constantly tortured" during his stay and during his detention.

From 2012 to 2016 Schulte worked as a software developer at the CIA Cyber ​ ​ Intelligence Center. According to authorities, he used official access to the department's systems to steal information related to national security and transfer it to WikiLeaks. Prior to his arrest, Schulte helped create hacking tools while working as a coder at the agency's Langley headquarters in Virginia. He has been in prison since 2018.^[1]

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