Ex-CIA software developer found guilty of massive data theft in 2017 | NOW

A former CIA software developer was found guilty on Wednesday of causing the largest theft of classified information in CIA history, news agency reported. AP.

Joshua Schulte did not have a lawyer, but defended himself at the trial in New York. The CIA and FBI blamed him for WikiLeaks’ painful release of a huge number of CIA secrets in 2017, he said.

The suspect showed no emotion when the judge told him that after days of deliberations, the jury found him guilty on nine charges.

Overseas Espionage Operations

The 8,000 CIA documents that appeared on WikiLeaks revealed that the CIA not only hacked smartphones in overseas espionage operations, but also attempted to turn Internet televisions into eavesdropping devices. Before his arrest, Schulte had helped develop the hacking software as a programmer at CIA headquarters in Langley.

According to prosecutors, 33-year-old Schulte organized the data breach because he felt the CIA had not taken his complaints about the work environment seriously. That’s why he tried “to burn to the ground the work he had helped create,” prosecutors said.

‘Possibly a future as a criminal lawyer’

In his closing argument, Schulte said he should hang, while hundreds of other people also had access to the classified information. The prosecution found there was sufficient evidence that Schulte had stolen a backup file, “the backup he sent to WikiLeaks”.

Judge Jesse M. Furman praised Schulte for his “impressive” closing argument. “Depending on what happens here, you may have a future as a criminal lawyer.”

Schulte has been in jail since 2018. He states that he is being brutally and unusually punished and that he is in solitary confinement, in a vermin-filled cell in a prison ward where inmates are treated like “caged animals.”

The date of the verdict in this case has not yet been determined because Schulte is also in waiting is in a lawsuit over the possession and transportation of child pornography. He has denied all allegations.

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