A former Central Intelligence Agency software engineer, convicted for orchestrating the agency’s largest theft of classified information and related charges of child abuse imagery, received a 40-year prison sentence on Thursday, according to US district judge Jesse Furman.
Federal prosecutors outlined Schulte’s sentence, attributing it to “crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography.”
However, the judge did not grant the life sentence sought by prosecutors.
Joshua Schulte was found guilty in July 2022 on multiple counts, including espionage, computer hacking, and lying to FBI agents, for divulging classified materials to WikiLeaks in the “Vault 7” leak. A judge largely upheld the conviction in August last year.
The WikiLeaks disclosures, initiated in March 2017, exposed CIA surveillance methods targeting foreign governments and alleged extremists by compromising electronic and computer networks.
Prosecutors described Schulte’s actions as “the largest data breach in the history of the CIA,” emphasizing the gravity of his unauthorized disclosure to WikiLeaks.
Additionally, prosecutors revealed that Schulte possessed thousands of images and videos of child sexual abuse, discovered in his New York apartment during the CIA leaks investigation.
The US intelligence community faced a significant setback in 2017 following the Vault 7 leak, which disclosed the CIA’s hacking tools for breaking into phones and electronic devices.
The leak underscored concerns about the vulnerability of secret documents in the digital age, following previous disclosures by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.
The breach, named Vault 7 by WikiLeaks, heightened scrutiny over US spy agencies’ ability to safeguard sensitive information and raised questions about the extent of cooperation between the CIA and foreign intelligence agencies.
