A former CIA engineer was sentenced to 40 years in prison for espionage and child pornography

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) software engineer was sentenced to 40 years in prison for espionage and child pornography. The investigation of Joshua Adam Schulte began in mid-2018 when an FBI investigation pursued damaging leaks of classified CIA information.

Although Schulte had been convicted in 2022 on eight federal charges arising from accusations that named him as the author of the largest theft of classified information in the history of the CIA, the Department of Justice announced his full sentence on Thursday.

Against the prosecutors’ wishes, who had asked for a life sentence, Judge Jesse Furman sentenced him to 40 years for “crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography.”

In March 2017, WikiLeaks set off intelligence alarms when it began publishing material describing how the CIA was monitoring foreign governments, suspected extremists, and others by compromising their electronic systems and computer networks.

Schulte was voluntarily interviewed by the agency on several occasions, always denying any involvement in the events and creating false narratives about the stolen information. It was later proven that it was Schulte who delivered the stolen material in the so-called Vault 7 leak.

After hearing the ruling, Deputy Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen stated: “Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and directly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest. As today’s sentence reaffirms, the Department of Justice is committed to investigating, prosecuting, and holding accountable those who would violate their constitutional oath and betray the trust of the American people they pledged to protect.”

According to federal prosecutor Damian Williams, the man “caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there.”

Regarding the content of the documents, CBS News reported at the time that they contained “clandestine methods for bypassing or defeating encryption, antivirus tools and other protective security features intended to keep the private information of citizens and corporations safe from prying eyes.”